Resolution
by DuckiePray
Summary: Two months after "Buried", the cross country hunt for a dangerous enemy takes an unexpected turn. Will a new evil partnership prove too much for the turtles to handle, when their own are threatened for a third time? Serious curveballs ahead.
1. Running

*** The following material is the **_**continuation**_** of a story that has progressed much further than I ever anticipated taking it. All of the previous fics that I've written were meant to simply flow from one to the next, but the last two before this one pushed me way outside the box that I was used to writing in. As always, I'll do my best to explain some things along the way, just in case newcomers aren't familiar with the story already in progress. But your best bet to understanding our villains (yes, I did say villains, plural), where our turtle friends are at, and who the heck all these OC's are, would be to at least visit the two that lead up to this one. Manhunt set the stage, and Buried continued it. Resolution...will have twists all of it's own. I own none of the TMNT - only a collection of OC's which continues to grow.**

**Thank you for reading, thank you for reviewing. Feedback is so appreciated - the interactive experience is part of what makes this sight so addictive to me. With nothing more to say for the moment, I guess it's just time to hit the ground...running.**

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* * *

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The turtle couldn't tell which actually sounded louder in his ears - the rhythmic pounding of his feet across the wet pavement, or the heart-beat in his chest that felt like it had taken on a life of it's own. He'd been running at what seemed a break-neck pace for seven blocks, but could _still_ hear the sound of the canines behind him.

If it weren't for the ridiculous dogs, he could have simply _hidden_ to begin with, but the animals were hot on his shell, and not giving him an easy escape by any stretch of the imagination. Somehow it was much deeper seeded sensation of panic to know that he was being pursued by the NYPD, instead of their typical enemy. He would almost welcome being caught by one of the bad guys right now, rather than by the police.

His glance was suddenly drawn by rapid movement on the block ahead of him, and the turtle immediately realized the humans were trying to cut him off. As he raced by another street camera, he shook his head in frustration. The surveillance tools worked well for the NYPD when they were hunting down suspects, but right now they _seriously_ had the wrong guy.

It appeared that another "Good Samaritan" had phoned 911 for a change, while the turtle had been engaged in breaking up the attempt on someone's life. The police were within two blocks of the scene before he'd even had a _chance _to finish business with the thugs. The turtle'd had no choice but to flee on foot, along with the rest of the hoodlums.

Unfortunately for him, the K9 units had latched on to _his_ particular scent with a vengeance. As he'd taken off, he had considered hitting the panic button on his watch, but leading his brothers into a pack of police officers was the _last _thing that he wanted to do.

Now that he had police on foot coming at him from _both _directions, he was seriously running out of options on this road. He cast a harried glance at the street, and darted out between parked cars, right into oncoming traffic. The turtle fell back a pace to avoid a truck, before sprinting across the street into the west-bound lane. He leaped to clear the hood of a taxi loudly blaring it's horn, and somersaulted back over the hood of another parked car.

"Who _is_ this guy, Superman?" One of the cops demanded of his partner, as they hesitated for a moment for their own chance to get through traffic.

"He'll be _lucky_ if he doesn't get himself killed!" The other exclaimed. "We've gotta get him down before he hurts someone_ else_!"

The turtle had run straight into a pack of pedestrians, slowing down what hope he had of furthering his lead on the police.

"Excuse me, _look out_, comin' through!" He shouted somewhat apologetically, as he shoved his way through the people.

He'd just barely fought his way through the crowd without actually flattening anyone in his path, when he heard the sharp barking close by again. With a cry of frustration, he jerked around to face the nearest alley. It wasn't a dead-end, it would be able to put him through to the next street. It required a short jaunt _toward _the dogs that were intent of catching him, and he realized full well he would be cutting it close if he couldn't change directions fast enough.

He gasped harder for air as he raced between the store-fronts, disappointment raging as he was forced to forgo the easy access to the sewers. There was no time to stop, neither was there a fire escape within reach. In the end, he had no choice but to keep going, plowing right through the darkness onto another street.

The road wasn't as heavily traveled as the last, but he could still _hear_ sirens, in addition to the animals that were on his trail. The sight of five men racing up the block made the turtle stop and try to change directions again, before realizing how close one of the dogs had gotten to him. Sharp teeth snapped down on the fabric of his coat, and the turtle realized in that instant that he had one of two choices - either the coat was going down, or _he_ was.

Feeling utterly desperate, he yanked his arms out of the sleeves, and gave the coat a strong flick as he separated from it, forcing the canine to get tangled up in it. Now he _really_ need to get out of sight. The turtle dashed across the road without incident, groaning at the fact that street cameras were capturing his every move.

_Aw shell! There's no helping it now - I've gotta keep going!_

Coming up on another alley, this time he _did_ see the shadowy outline of a ladder overhead. He scrambled on top of a dumpster, only seconds ahead of the wild beasts trying to pass themselves off as dogs. The turtle leaped to reach the ladder, and climbed hand over hand to get up the fire escape.

A couple of officers attempted to follow him up, while dog handlers stayed on the street to calm down their canines from the chase. The two men were in a perfect position to see their runner actually leap from the building's roof directly to another, and then keep running.

"I think it_ is _Superman." One of them remarked.

His partner shook his head as he listened to the transmission over his radio. "If it is, he's in the wrong costume."

* * *

Timothy Long had been waiting with some anticipation in his _own_ squad car, positioned roughly two miles away from where all the action was currently taking place. He was _prepared_ to dive in, just waiting on a little more information before he judged his own move. He sat further upright when a call came over the radio specifically for him.

"This is Captain Long, I copy you...Go ahead and send the footage, I'm set to receive it...He did _what_? Do we have Spiderman on our hands?...No, Superman jumped _over_ tall buildings in a single bound, not between...Good, let me know the ETA on that chopper...Package is received on my end - keep me up to speed. Over and out."

The man clicked on the file to download the image to his laptop on the seat next to him, and waited for a few seconds for the picture to load. He rocked back and forth in his seat slightly, antsy to get moving and join the chase on their mystery runner. When he squinted to focus on the somewhat awkward image, all at once, he was struck by a familiar element within it.

"What..." He started in disbelief. "_Oh my God_."

The men on the street had assumed their target was wearing a strange disguise, but Tim had seen this particular creature _before. _

Timothy slapped his laptop shut, and jumped out of his car. "Oh shoot...how can I..."

To make matters worse at that particular moment, another call was hailing him over his radio, informing him that the helicopter was five minutes away. Tim couldn't stand still, even though he didn't have a clue how he could help the turtle. He looked up at the building he was parked beside, and made a swift decision.

_I just hope he __stays__ on this course._

* * *

At that particular moment in Chelsea, Donatello was climbing down from making an adjustment over the back door of Luke's Brownstone, and dusted off his hands lightly.

"That _should_ do it Doc. Why don't you go ahead and try it again?"

Luke hit the remote to attempt turning on the camera for the thirtieth time that day, and grinned when the light actually came on. "What would I do without you Donnie?"

"I dunno, you'd probably have to hire someone." Donatello quipped. "But I figure a little 'trade exchange' is completely fair."

"Thanks a lot for getting it back up. It's getting _late_, isn't it? Wasn't that brother of yours' supposed to be calling?"

Donatello glanced at his watch, brow furrowing slightly when he saw the time. He'd been too busy to notice before. "Yeah...he definitely _should_ have by now. Hang on, I'll see what he's up to. He probably just lost track of time too."

The turtle flipped open his phone, and hit Michelangelo's speed dial. It took four rings to get him to pick up, and when he did, his brother was extremely breathless.

"Donnie, _now's_ not a good time!" Came the slightly panicked voice on the other end.

"What are you _doing_ Mikey?"

"_Running_! I'll call you back - I gotta go!"

"Mike, where--" Donatello tried to ask, but the phone had already cut off. "_Shell_!"

"What was that about?" Luke asked him.

"He _sounded_ like he was in trouble Doc!"

"What'd he do, break his watch? He never set it off!"

Donatello didn't answer the man, but quickly darted back through the door into the kitchen, and reached for his laptop on the counter.

"Do you see anything?" Luke asked, after giving him sufficient time to load the search software.

"I'm tracking his implant. He doesn't seem to be hurt, but his vitals are in absolute_ overdrive_. He told me he was running."

"Can you get a fix on his location?"

"I see him Doc, but he's still _moving_!"

"Grab your scanner and let's get_ moving _too!"

* * *

Timothy Long took a deep breath as he adjusted the scope on his rifle, and looked through it experimentally.

_Geesh, if I don't get this spot on, I'm gonna hurt somebody. Steady Tim._

Since the chopper had showed up, it had been keeping a strong search light out for the turtle, who by now was too nervous to descend to the street, and be discovered in his own skin. But being chased by a helicopter over the rooftops wasn't exactly much better.

Tim had a good bead on his target, now he just had to work up some serious nerve. _Alright Long, you've gotta go for it._

He reached for the radio that was clipped to his shoulder. "City Bird 1, this is Captain Long, do you copy?"

"Roger that Captain, we're still on the hunt, traveling eastbound on Darmouth. We have visual, been authorized to move in with force."

Timothy struggled to keep his voice steady at the last bit of information. "I'm sending you a piece of footage - it's vital that your people see it immediately." He lied through his teeth, for the sole purpose of getting the man to check the onboard computer, and back off of the door.

Long waited a few seconds to make certain the individual was out of the way, and took careful aim through his sight again. He fired a single shot in the direction of the chopper, pumping his fist slightly when it succeeded in shattering the search-light. He felt rather guilty for the panicked transmissions that immediately followed it, but shook his head fiercely. _I didn't have a choice._

"City Bird, you might wanna think about relocating, over?" Tim suggested in return.

"Negative, we're going in with flash cells."

* * *

Michelangelo had been startled out of his mind by the sound of the rifle, and seriously thought for a moment that _he_ was being shot at. He was further bewildered (but thankful) when the search light lost him entirely. His limbs were burning from exertion, and he was really having to push himself to keep moving now. The chopper hadn't broken off chase, despite the fact that it could barely make out his figure on the rooftop now.

He made the leap to the next building, and clearly heard something falling from overhead. Mike ducked his head close to his chest and kept going, startled by the flashes that immediately lit up the rooftop around him. His attention turned to avoiding what had landed further in front of him, distracting him from realizing what was almost on _top_ of him until it was too late.

He was in mid-stride when another cell struck the roof about a foot away from him, the resulting concussion hurling him forward with sudden force. He expected to hit the rooftop, but was shocked when _skylight_ came rushing up to meet him instead, glass shattering in painful shards as he fell.


	2. Rescuer

Michelangelo had a brief instant of unknowing as he free fell several feet through the window, that is until his chest slammed into something so hard that it knocked the wind out of him. Then he was descending again, only as if in slow motion now, ears popping strangely. Muddied thoughts couldn't begin to cut through the confusion, until the burning sensation in his lungs brought him slightly back to himself.

Blue eyes shot open as he felt something solid beneath him, stinging unexpectedly as he tried to make out his foggy surroundings. His chest labored as he gasped for breath, but couldn't find it. In a flash, his conscious mind finally _understood _the rippling surface above him, and his legs came to his rescue. Bracing them firmly against the bottom, he kicked off of it as hard as he could manage.

Michelangelo broke the surface of the water in a tremendous coughing fit, fighting to expel chlorine from his lungs. It made his chest hurt worse than it already did, but his own reflexes couldn't _stop_ the motion. The turtle just barely started to tread water, as he fought to get his airway back. Only then did his gaze drift back towards the ceiling, and take in the sight of the partially shattered skylight that covered several square feet of the rooftop.

_They were chasing me_, he remembered. _I have to get out of here!_

He immediately _tried _to swim, shocked by the level of pain that trying to use his arms that way produced. His limbs felt heavy and somewhat _worthless_, but at least his legs managed to obey him for a couple more kicks, so that he could make it to the side of the pool. The effort made him dizzy as he bumped into the wall, and then mentally commanded his arms to work. He raised them out of the water, so that he would be able to hold on to the side.

There Michelangelo rested for a moment, leaning his forehead against the cement wearily. He wasn't even certain how long he stayed that way - but the next realization to come over him was the fact that was _bleeding_.

_I've gotta...get out. They guys would come, they would--_

The thought was interrupted with another sinking realization. His immersion would probably have killed both his watch_ and _his phone. He clung to the wall with one arm, and tried to make out the facing of his watch in the darkness. He punched a button experimentally, and was rewarded with _nothing_.

_Shell. I have to help __myself__ here._

He braced his other arm back against the wall, and took a sharp breath as he tried to hoist his own weight out of the water. The explosion of pain in his chest prevented him from making it more than a couple of inches, and left him gasping for breath again. Undaunted, he tried the maneuver again, six times over the course of ten minutes. The final attempt left him so exhausted that he could hardly hold on to the side.

His thoughts were getting foggy again, breathing sounding ragged to his own ears.

_I have to rest. I __have__ to..._

* * *

Timothy Long had sprang back into motion, the instant the chopper's last transmission had come through.

_"Suspect is down, emergency services being contacted. Repeat, suspect is __down__, all units report to 656 Darmouth."_

Tim _knew_ that building, and had hope that his own position would put him the closest, if he could just get back to the ground fast enough. Heart racing, he descended the fire escape, running for all he was worth to get up the half block to the YMCA.

"This is Captain Long, I'm on the scene and moving in. Make contact the _moment _you arrive!" Timothy barked into his radio.

_It'd be nice to at least know when they're coming - not that it'll help me much. I can't have a lot of time!_

Tim unloaded a single shot from his service revolver into the door, kicking out several pieces of glass before he could duck inside. As he rushed to the elevator, the thought occurred to him that the turtle probably couldn't have gotten that far, and would most likely still be around the top floor.

_Skylights...I hope that at least means he landed in the water. _he thought a little morosely, as the elevator carried him up.

Tim knew exactly where he was going - he'd frequented this building in his younger days. It'd been through serious renovations since then, but the footprint couldn't have changed _that_ much. Breaking into the pool area required shooting out another door. As Tim ducked through it carefully, he replaced his gun, and drew his flashlight.

"Hello?" He called out anxiously, swiftly sweeping the light across the room.

When it landed on the water, it only took a few moments to notice the disturbance. Tim raced over toward it, dropping down onto the cement by the edge of the pool. The blue-eyed stare that met him was glazed, and obviously not completely aware of everything. The man reached for the turtle's chin, wincing at the deep cuts in his skin.

His mind flashed back to being inside of Stolle's building, being _carried, _not by this one, but by the one in blue, who'd immediately managed to make the man feel safe.

_But I __know__ I heard your name in there. What was it? Um...something about...the Sistine Chapel..._

"Michelangelo!" He suddenly proclaimed out loud, and the creature actually blinked.

"Huh?" The turtle grunted, still sounding like he was disoriented.

"It's me, Timothy. I'm a friend. You guys saved my life, remember?"

The blue eyes squinted slightly, and the head bobbed. "Yeah. W...where are we?"

"You fell through the YMCA. If I help you, do you think you can get out of there? There are reinforcements coming to look for you, I _don't_ think we have much time."

His face screwed up with the effort of trying to lift himself again, and then he groaned somewhat helplessly.

"It's okay Michelangelo, let me _help_ you." Tim urged him, shrugging out of his jacket and radio. He braced his arms under the turtle's green muscular limbs. "_With _me now buddy, I don't think I can lift your full weight out of there. On the count of three, just help me as much as you _can_, and I'll do the rest. Ready?"

He barely nodded again, and Tim exerted every ounce of force that he possessed (as well as some he_ didn't _realize he had) to drag the turtle out of the water. Michelangelo moaned loudly as he slumped face down on the cement, and didn't move. With intense concern, Tim helped get him back on his shell, not liking the quality of his breathing.

It had only just settled somewhat, when Tim heard the blast of his radio, airing the code indicating that officers had arrived on the scene.

The man swore out loud. "I have to hide you."

He darted upright, hitting the room with his flashlight again. A gleam of silver caught his eye, made him hesitate, and he focused on the sight of a keyring in the handle of a door. He yanked it open to reveal a supply closet, nodding immediately to himself. Without any further hesitation, he ran back to Mike's side, pulling him partially off the cement.

"I'm_ really _sorry," He told the gasping turtle. "But they're _coming_!"

He lugged the turtle's frame through the door into the closet, then snatched a stack of towels off the nearest shelf. Tim rolled one of them up under Michelangelo's head, and quickly covered him with two more.

"Michelangelo, I have to lock you in. I'm coming back for you, I _promise_. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Came the shaky reply.

"Don't move, and don't make a sound." He warned.

Mike exhaled sharply as the door clicked shut, engulfing him in complete darkness.

_Shoulda called someone before....shouda talked to Donnie, _the bitter thought fought through his subconsciousness. _So stupid...why..._

The sight of Timothy Long had sent shock waves through him. He had no choice now, but to trust that the man would do what he said.

* * *

Timothy made swift work with a couple more towels to dispose of the partially visible blood trail, and leave no immediate evidence of where the turtle had gone. He didn't care so much if the officers found evidence that he'd_ been _there, so long as they couldn't decipher where he'd _gone_. He dropped the keyring into his own pocket, and yanked back on his jacket to disguise the stains from assisting Michelangelo. He saw the lights approaching, and help his breath.

_Take charge Long._

As soon as officers filtered into the room, Tim strode forward to meet them.

"He was here, he came through here for sure. I couldn't find any evidence tying him to staying in the area - everything points to the fact that he's still moving." Timothy informed them.

"What is he, _indestructible_?" One of them demanded.

"We've got _somebody's_ blood by the edge, so that doesn't seem to be the case."Another spoke up.

The officers fanned out to search the surrounding locker rooms, while Timothy stayed behind to "direct" people, and to keep them away from the supply closet at the same time. He intentionally didn't stand directly in front of it, not wanting to give anyone a reason to be drawn in that direction.

As one man had his attention with a stupid question, he noticed that another was trying to turn the doorknob out of the corner of his eye.

"Keller, that one's locked from the outside!" Timothy said sharply. "I already tried it. Make yourself useful, and move on to another floor."

Tim rubbed both eyes a little nervously._ I don't know __how__ I'm gonna get you out of here._


	3. Options

After a few minutes of searching the adjoining locker rooms didn't produce anything, Tim finally managed to weasel everyone out of the pool area. He followed them a short way as the group split up to help search the rest of the building, and then waited until they were out of sight before hurrying back to the supply closet.

The turtle didn't appear to have moved an inch, but also wasn't responsive when Timothy called his name. He dropped to the cold floor beside him, lightly shaking his shoulder. "C'mon, wake up. You _have_ to be alright." He urged, and released a shaky breath when the turtle's eyelids stirred.

Michelangelo coughed weakly, his lungs still irritated from taking in so much of the chlorine. Tim braced a hand under his neck to support him, and helped raise his head a little.

"What's happening?" The turtle asked him.

"We're going nowhere fast. The building's been locked down - cops are searching all over the place for you."

"_Shell_. I blew this one outta the water."

"I don't _see_ myself being able to get you out of here on my own, not without being discovered. Maybe if we had some help..."

Michelangelo closed his eyes briefly, as another wave of coughing wracked his tortured chest. "I'll give you a number." He rasped a moment later.

* * *

Luke and Donatello had closed in on Mike's transmitter signal, but were now rather perplexed as for how to proceed. The scene looked _ridiculous_ from the outside. Luke found himself continually chiding Donatello to stay _down_ on the collapsed seat, but the turtle could hardly stay still.

"Doc, he's _in_ there, we've gotta do _something!"_

"I _know_ that as well as you do, but getting _yourself_ seen isn't going to help matters Donnie!"

"There _has_ to be someway we could get in there. We have to at least--" Donatello cut himself off abruptly as his phone rang, displaying an unknown number.

"Who is it Donnie, is it Mike?"

"No, I don't have a _clue_ who it is. Hold on." The turtle flipped open the phone, shifting it to another position. "Hello?"

"Is this Donatello?" An unfamiliar voice came through on the other end.

"Yeah..." The turtle replied warily. "Who's_ this_?"

"Timothy Long - do you remember me? You guys saved my tail a few months back?"

"That's not something I'll _forget_ any time soon. What's going on here Captain? I didn't know Marc gave you our numbers."

"He didn't, I'm with your brother Michelangelo. We're holed up right now, stuck in the middle of a huge mess of a situation!"

"We're on the outside!" Donatello replied quickly. "What _happened_, is he alright?!"

"He's hurt, he came through a skylight. Water broke his fall, but he still didn't come out unscathed. I was in the right place to get to him _first_. I'm hiding him as well as I can, but like I said, we're sort of stuck in here!"

Donatello reasoned to himself swiftly, over the course of a couple of seconds. His brother would have called_ himself _if he were able to, but the fact that he _was_ able to get the number to Tim was encouraging.

Luke couldn't stand the suspense anymore. "Donnie, _what's_ going on?"

"It's Captain Long Doc, he's got Mikey squirreled away in there somewhere!" Donatello replied to his friend, and turned back to the phone. "Is he still conscious, talking rationally?"

"He's awake, but he's not all there. I don't think he can actually move much on his own, he needed help just getting out of the water. I don't see anything immediately mortal, but he _is_ bleeding from a few places. I don't know how long we can safely wait out the cops."

"Alright Captain, this is where you expertise has to come in. You _know_ these teams. What would it take to get the men out of there entirely?"

There was silence on Tim's end for a long moment as he hesitated. "If um...if there were some kind of a bomb threat, the building would _have_ to empty out. Specialists would be on the scene in minutes to do a thorough sweep, but it _could _give me enough time to get him out. I can lift him, but I don't know how fast I can _move_ with him."

"Are the elevators still operational?"

"They certainly were when I got here."

"Then we can get _you_ pretty quickly. If we move in from the side, take the escape up a couple of levels...I imagine we could access an elevator from there. This is something you're willing to go along with?"

"I don't know what else we can do. I could tell dispatch that I found some kind of device, but--"

"That's not necessary Captain, they can't trace _my_ cell. We'll phone in a threat as soon as you give me the green light."

Tim rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. "Go ahead, as soon as you're off the phone with me."

* * *

Luke actually laughed when Donatello told him what Timothy had suggested. "I like the way this guy thinks."

"This isn't a_ joke _Doc. You don't really think I'm going to _enjoy_ doing this, do you?"

"Why don't you let_ me _call 'em Donnie? It won't screw with _my_ honor system."

The turtle's grim look didn't falter, as he simply handed the phone over to Luke.

"We're not _really_ going to be hurting anyone Donatello." Luke reminded him.

"I _know_ that, but I don't like messing with this junk. Just go ahead and get it over with, we've _got_ to get to Mike!"

"Give me just a second to get my story straight."

* * *

Timothy felt himself breathing more rapidly as the minutes passed, fighting down the panic rising inside of him.

_It's the right thing to do, we didn't have a choice! They'd better be tearing it __up__ to get here._

He got the call that he was waiting for, roughly fifteen minutes after hanging up with Donatello the first time.

"We're closing in on you Captain!" Donatello's voice greeted him. "How's my brother?"

"Not extremely responsive. You _are_ quick!"

"I'd have been there faster, but I have a civilian weighing me down." The turtle replied ironically.

"I can still _hear_ you Donnie!" Luke complained. "_Forgive_ me for not being able to make that ten foot leap!"

"Save your breath Doc, you still_ need _it." Donatello told the slightly heaving man.

Luke gave him a look that could have killed, as they came in sight of the pool enclosure.

Tim hurried to open the door of the closet to meet them, waving them over to Michelangelo.

Donatello dashed ahead of Luke, and hit the floor at his brother's side. "Mikey? Mike, can you open your eyes?"

He cradled his brother's head in his hands, trying to force some kind of a reaction out of him, as Luke took a scanner to him.

The orange-banded turtle rolled in neck in Donatello's grip, halfway opening blue eyes, "Don...'M sorry..."

"Shh, it's alright. Stay still, we're gonna take care of everything."

"I didn't want you _caught_." Michelangelo trembled, heaving somewhat through a deeper breath.

"Don't like the sound of _that_ Doc." Donatello said more quietly so that only Luke could hear him, as the man studied the screen of his scanner.

"It's those rib fractures from a _year_ ago Donnie, he's got several of them opened up again. We could end up hurting him worse carrying him out in a hurry, but we don't have another choice."

Tim ducked his head back in the closet an instant later. "Guys, Bomb Squad is here. What's our next move?"

"Fire Escape." Donatello replied simply. "We need to get back down to the alley, there's sewer access from there."

"It sounds like you've _done_ this a few times." Tim said.

"Not with the _NYPD_ specifically." Luke responded. "Ready or not, we've got to go."

"Doc, do you suppose we could sedate him first?" Donatello suggested. "I don't want him to suffer."

"That's a good call Donnie, go ahead and do it." Luke told him, and then watched curiously as Tim snatched a janitor's bucket from the corner, and dragged it back out in the direction of the water. "Captain, I don't think we have _time_ to clean up." He called after him.

"I'm not gonna clean up, just _cover_ up!" Tim replied. "The chlorine will contaminate every ounce of trace that he left behind! I don't want investigators getting their hands on any clean samples!"

Luke shook his head in amazement. "I _really_ like this guy Don. Good job saving his acorns."

"Let's focus on saving _ours_ now Doc." Donatello shot back.

It only took Tim seconds to dump his load over the cement, and then across the floor of the supply closet after Donatello and Luke had gotten Michelangelo up.

"Alright, I'm with you guys - lead the way." The man said a little hurriedly.

"Would you mind helping me with Mike, Captain? It will be a smoother ride if _two_ of us are on him." Donatello requested.

"Donnie, I'm perfectly capable of holding my end." Luke said in annoyance.

"_Yes, _you are Doc, but I need you to call the guys. I'll set my watch to make it easier to track, and tell 'em to meet us with a Slider underground." Donatello explained swiftly, and Luke relented at once.

"Oh, fine...let's just _go_!"


	4. Welcome Committee

Raphael was sitting on the couch in the living area, the volume of the television turned down somewhat. He cast a smile in Karina's direction, admiring the woman silently while she dozed on his shoulder.

_Shell, she's been working so hard lately. Never complains about it, but I can tell she's wearing out a little._

As her breathing deepened for an instant, he brushed bronze hair softly from her cheek. She stirred on the couch, blinking light green eyes to look at him.

"Mm. I didn't mean to fall asleep on you, I'm sorry." Karina said at once.

He chuckled at the woman. "I didn't wanna bother you. You look so sweet and _harmless_ when you're sleepin'."

She reached out a hand to draw his chin toward her with a coy smile. "Harmless hm? It sounds like you need a closer look."

He bent further over the couch, meeting her in a lingering kiss. Both her arms came around his neck, as she rose off of the cushion to press closer against him. It was _still_ almost an unreal feeling to him to be this close to her, kissing in a way that had become quickly so comfortable. In a sense he felt like he'd known Karina much longer than he actually had, but the wonder of having the woman in his arms still wasn't lost on him.

He sighed deeply as she rested her cheek against his, and wrapped his arms around her more tightly.

"Karina?" He murmured softly.

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

Green eyes startled just a bit wider, a smile instantly appeared. "Really?"

He nodded, subconsciously rubbing the back of his hand across his temple. It was a habit he'd picked up after the accident, whenever he was truly nervous.

"You're not just saying that to make me happy?" The woman pressed a little.

"Kari, when did I ever do _anything_ just 'cause someone wanted me to?"

"You have a point." She admitted with a twinkle in her eye, and then grew serious again. "Raph, I've loved you for longer than you even remember me _being_ here. I didn't want to say it too soon, make you feel pressured."

"And this is really what you want?" He forced himself to ask. "You're honestly happy down here?"

She grasped his chin a second time, forcing the turtle to look her in the eyes. "I'm here because I _want_ to be. Don't forever make me try to convince you of that Raphael."

The woman kissed him again, and what looked like tears were glistening in her eyes. "I love you so much. I just want you to be able to _believe_ it."

As he gathered her up again, the turtle was suddenly assailed by the sound pounding feet coming down the staircase.

"Excuse me guys, I'm _sorry_." Leonardo said meekly.

"_Really_ Fearless?" Raphael was exasperated beyond belief, as Karina swiftly backpedaled off of him.

"Raph, we've gotta go! I just got a call from Doc, they need us to come pick them up - Mikey's hurt."

* * *

"Captain, I really think that you should come with us all the way." Donnie told the man firmly, as soon as they were safely underground.

"I don't know if it's a good idea. I'm going to have to check in with my department at _some_ point." Tim said honestly.

"Think about this for a second Captain." Luke tried to reason with him. "You've got a lot of Mike's blood on you now. How exactly are you going to explain that?"

The man was silent for a few instants. "I...Brother. I've really put myself in a tight spot. I've done things in this last hour, probably broken more laws than some of the criminals we've got in lock-up. Assault, obstruction, harboring, tampering with a crime scene." He sounded suddenly overwhelmed, but was drawn back to Donatello on the ground, who'd focused his attention tearing further strips to apply pressure to his younger brother.

"But it was _worth_ it." Tim added finally.

"Who did you _assault_?" Luke had to ask.

"Oh, I didn't _hurt_ anyone. I just shot out the search light on that stupid chopper. That's probably qualifies as assault with a deadly weapon."

"Captain, you're _coming _back with us." Donatello said firmly, brown eyes literally boring into the man. "We won't take no for an answer."

"Then you're going to have to quit with the 'Captain' bit. My friends call me Tim."

* * *

It took Leonardo and Raphael took a few minutes to reach their location, and Tim straightened up further against one of the walls as they pulled up, nerves still clinging.

"Captain." Leonardo said, clearly very surprised to see the man. "What are_ you _doing down here? What's going on?"

"I was a little vague on details." Luke admitted at once. "Figured we could explain better in person."

"There's no time for that yet." Donatello said briskly. "We need to get Mikey _home_."

"How bad is it Donnie?" Raphael asked anxiously. "How long's he been out of it?"

"I sedated him Raph, gave him a double so he wouldn't come around too fast. He's lost a lot of blood, so we can't hang around. Tim_ really _saved his shell." Donatello finished, as Raphael fixed an amber gaze on the man for the first time.

"Wait, so _you're_--"

"Timothy Long." The man filled in. "Nice to meet you when you're _awake_ Raphael."

* * *

Leonardo helped Tim get cleaned up back at the Den, and got him into some of Marc's clothes, since he was the closest fit. It took a few minutes for Timothy to explain everything that had happened to the other two brothers, while Luke and Donatello had gotten to work with Michelangelo in the Lab.

"Lemme get this straight - they got him on _camera_?" Raphael demanded.

"They thought it was a costume Raphael," Tim told the turtle. "They had no idea what they were actually looking at."

"Why'd you take such a risk to help him?" The red-banded turtle asked.

"Your brothers risked everything to help _me_, and they didn't have to." Tim answered. "Letting the police find Michelangelo is the _last_ thing I would have done."

"Where'd you learn to shoot like that?"

"SWAT." The man replied, smiling for the first time in over an hour. "I was on a team for over fifteen years."

"I _guess_ you're an okay guy." Raphael allowed, patting Karina's knee at his side as he got back to his feet. "I'll be back. I wanna check on Mikey."

"Don't get in their _way _Raph." Leonardo called after him.

The red-banded turtle waved him off, and ventured into the attached Lab. Luke and Donnie seemed very calm, so he walked through the doorway completely after a beat of hesitation.

"How's he doing?" He asked Donatello.

"He's okay Raph, or he_ will _be soon. Thanks to Tim that is...I don't want to imagine if he _hadn't_ been there. We've got him closed up temporarily, and we'll start on stitches once he's a bit more stable."

"What else Donnie? What's Doc taping him up for?"

"The fall did a number on his rib cage, shattered some of the same fractures that he suffered last year."

"Do you mind if I'm here?"

"No Raph, just don't get under Doc's feet, alright?"

Raphael pulled a desk chair over to sit nearby his youunger brother, as Luke took a moment to draw Donatello over to the computer to confer on a scan. The turtle sat silent for a few seconds, surprised to find himself blinking back tears. "Aw Mikey..."

He reached for his brother's hand, grasping it firmly in his own. Raphael was surprised again when his younger brother grunted softly.

"Mike?"

The turtle blinked very laboriously, and seemed to be having a hard time completely focusing.

"Hey_ bonehead_." Raphael said with a relieved grin, when the blue eyes finally landed on him. "Nice to see ya."

His gaze squinted just a little at the red-banded turtle. "Who 're you?"

"_What_?" Raphael couldn't keep from literally shouting, and only then caught Michelangelo's half smile. "_That's not funny_!" He seethed angrily, clenching his fists firmly at his side to prevent himself from back-handing his younger brother.

"It's _kinda_ funny." He replied maddeningly.

"Doc, Donnie, you guys_ better _get over here before I strangle the life out of him!"

* * *

Jenna let herself in the front door about an hour later, jolting to a stop when she saw Timothy sitting in one of the chairs.

"Uh..._hi_." She said somewhat guardedly, glancing around at the others.

"Jen." Leonardo was on his feet in an instant. "Sorry, we've had an interesting evening."

"I can _see _that. Somebody wanna tell me what's going on?" She requested.

"Mikey came about this close to getting run down by the NYPD." Leonardo demonstrated, holding two fingers slightly apart.

"Why didn't anyone _call_ me? Is he okay?"

"He's busted up Jenna, but the geniuses say it's under control. Don't feel _too_ bad, they didn't call Leo or me until they needed a ride either!" Raphael said rather fiercely, and didn't miss the look Karina gave him. "What? I'm not 'spose to be upset about this? He was_ that _close to being completely exposed!"

"I think that you should _save_ your anger, for when it will actually do you some good." The woman said rationally.

"Easier _said_ than done." He retorted.


	5. Phantoms

"...Well, you can come if you really wanna Heff, but nothing's happening right now...It's onTV? What channel?"

Raphael pulled his phone away from his ear for a moment, to call out to Leonardo. "Hey Fearless, get it on channel 7 right now. Heff says they're talking about Mikey's junk!"

The blue-banded turtle snapped up the remote off the table, and shifted somewhat uncomfortably on the couch, as they joined the broadcast that was already in progress.

"Okay man, I'll call you back in a couple of minutes." Raphael said to Greg, and turned back to watch the TV too.

A collective breath was held as the events were recounted, without a tremendous amount of details. The reporter only ended up interviewing a couple of witnesses on the streets, and the police apparently hadn't released any information yet.

Tim's nerves were hardly allowing him to stay seated. Leonardo could almost smell the man's fear from _he_ was sitting.

"Tim," He said quietly to get the man's attention. "We _won't _let you burn for this, okay? That's not our style. We have some friends in the right places, I'm sure they can help come up with some excuse to explain your whereabouts. Everything's going to be alright. You can trust me, remember?"

The man nodded, and tried hard to relax somewhat.

Jenna came back into the room with Karina, who'd gone to help her pull things together. "I've got coffee, tea, and everything in-between." She announced. She tried to flash a reassuring smile at Timothy, and then glanced at the television which had carried on with the regular news. "Did they say anything about Mike?"

"Nothing real specific." Leonardo answered. "But I think there are a couple more New Yorkers who are going to buy into the Phantom rumors now."

Tim actually jerked upright at that, and laughed surprisingly. "You guys_ are _behind them, aren't you? It didn't even occur to me that you could be, until you just said that. I must be one of the slowest men alive."

"You met with Marc didn't you?" Raphael asked. "What'd he tell you about us?"

Tim shook his head. "Hardly anything - just that you make the city safer than it would be. You're the ones behind all the take-downs, the botched robberies, the neat little packages left behind for us to clean up?"

Leo and Raph exchanged a quick glance, and then Leonardo nodded. "We are. We understand you probably don't approve--"

"Are you kidding me? You guys are the stuff of legend, the mystery that comes up every time one of those 911 calls come in." The man laughed again. "Wow. It's really you."

"We didn't think you'd be too keen on it." Raphael said a little suspiciously, not sure if he trusted the man's reaction.

"Not on the record of course, but you'd be surprised how many cops secretlydig you guys." Timothy said honestly.

"Are you implying that you're one of them?" Karina asked.

"I can't say how supportive I'd be if I didn't understand the situation somewhat. But I always have been impressed by the way you capture these guys, without causing permanent damage. This is unbelievable. _Wow_."

"So we're not going to have to worry about you?" Jenna said pointedly.

"No cop alive could make me talk - and that's the truth." He answered as seriously as he could.

Jenna seemed satisfied with that, for the moment anyway. "I'm going to drop some coffee by the Lab - I'll catch you guys later."

* * *

Marc had come about forty minutes after they'd arrived home, knowing they could use further assistance with the job the glass had done on the turtle. Mike was resting under a general anesthetic while they worked to thoroughly clean and then stitch the areas, with expertise that came from years of working together.

When Jenna came into the Lab to supply some caffeine, Leonardo trailed along with her to check on things for himself. Donnie drew apart slightly from the others when he saw his brother come into the room.

"How are things looking? Is the blood supply holding up? You know I'm good for more if he needs it." Leonardo said.

"Our back stock should be sufficient Leo, but I'll let you know if it isn't. He's pretty stable right now, we've just got him mostly under to make the stitches easier on him."

"Raph said he's dealing with some old injuries?"

Donatello winced, and then nodded. "Yeah...breaking those same fractures as before is sure going to hamper his upper body strength for awhile. He shouldn't lose any function, but I'd be surprised if he could do any serious lifting for a few weeks."

"You guys think he'll heal alright?"

"Uh huh, it'll just take time, like it always does. He's not really aware of anything right now, but I can come and get you when he is."

"I'd appreciate that Donnie."

"Is Tim doing okay out there?"

Leonardo caught himself chuckling, in spite of everything. "I think we've probably got us another member."

"I sure hope so, for what he put himself through tonight. I'd better get back to help them - I'll find you when he comes around."

"Thanks bro." Leonardo told him, and disappeared back into the living area.

Donatello met Jenna by one of the desks, taking a swift drink before starting back over to the doctors.

"Take a load off for a minute Donnie, you've been focusing really hard over here." Luke told him.

"So have you Doc."

"That's the beauty of having three of us Don. You take a break, and then I will - you get it?"

The purple-banded turtle nodded without further argument, dropping into one of the desk chairs. He cast a mute glance in Jenna's direction, trying to read the expression in her light blue eyes.

"Are you still mad at me?" He asked impishly.

"You should have called me." She said a little darkly.

"Jen, I'm sorry. We didn't call _anybody. _We didn't even know if anything was definitely wrong, not until we got there."

"And after that? What was to stop you then?"

The turtle sighed a little tiredly. "C'mere Jenna."

The woman only hesitated for a moment, before dropping into another chair beside him, smoothing dark hair off of her forehead with a small frown.

"Look at me." He urged her. "Not a scratch. I've been on the mend for months Jen, the knee feels good. You've gotta stop worrying about me."

"If it were that easy, I would Donatello." She told him. "But that's pretty hard to do when this is our lives." She continued, motioning to where Michelangelo was lying. "This last year has been one disaster right after another, and it's_ still _not over."

Even though she was only speaking out of her own discouragement, she felt guilty the moment the words left her mouth in Luke's earshot. Even after it became common knowledge that Stolle had escaped to live another day, Luke had staunchly refused to abandon the Brownstone in Chelsea.

_"It doesn't matter where we go," _the man had adamantly argued. _"He has our names, he knows who we are. Unless we want to go into permanent hiding, he'd still be able to find us."_

No amount of grief from Katherine or anyone else had gotten him to falter on that.

_"I can live like a victim for the rest of my life, or I can try to actually __live__. I'll take extra precautions, but I won't live in terror anymore. I'm not going back to that."_

Donatello had upgraded their security system considerably, turning the innocent looking house into a fortress of his own design. He secretly wished that Luke would just let it go as much as Kat did, but if the man wasn't going to listen to his wife, he wouldn't listen to him either.

"So are you just going to stay mad at me?" Donatello finally asked his own wife, when he couldn't think of any way to assure her that Stolle wasn't gunning for them.

The puppy dog look in his brown eyes was too much for Jenna to further resist.

"What's the_ point_?"She grinned, her Australian lilt emphasizing the last word. "You'd win me over anyway."

The woman rose from her chair, and leaned in close to kiss him. She loved the feeling of his finger tracing her cheek bone so much, that she gave him another kiss for good measure. "You're gonna owe me for tonight y'know."

"I'll have to think of some way to pay you back." He replied a little deviously.


	6. Nice to Meet You

Around 2 in the morning, things had settled down considerably, and most of the occupants of the Den were gearing down to actually rest. Luke had sent Donatello to bed with Jenna, and Leonardo had decided to stay close by in the Lab himself, along with the doctor. Karina had stayed up to talk with Raphael and Tim for a good while, but finally retired out of her own weariness.

When it came down to just Raphael and Timothy, the turtle made sure that he didn't need anything else, and was about to go upstairs himself, but something made him hesitate in his step. Tim caught the inquiring glance that Raphael threw over his shoulder, and looked back curiously in return.

"What is it?" The man asked him.

Twice he opened his mouth as if to say something, and then shut it again without uttering a sound.

"Raphael? What are you wanting to say?"

The turtle spun deliberately to return to the living area, and sat down by Tim on the couch.

"I wanted to ask you about something, but I didn't wanna upset you."

"Upset me about what?"

He hesitated a beat longer, and then made eye contact with Tim. "It's about Stolle. And I didn't know if it would bother you to talk about him."

Tim let out a deep breath, and sat back further against the couch. "I don't really know much about him Raph, with the exception of the fact that he's a bonafide lunatic."

"What'd he grab you for?" Raphael asked him.

"He thought I was somehow connected in the whole grand scheme that he invented in his own mind. I was off duty, but I caught sight of his vehicle in the warehouse district, and something wasn't right about it. Dr. Sloan told me that he'd been setting a trap in that immediate area, hoping to lure your brothers there. My timing of turning up right at _that_ moment ended up implicating me as being involved. I had no idea what was really going on of course, it just gave me a strange feeling.

I followed him and that Williams character, until they committed a traffic infraction right in front of me. When I pulled them over, he made some excuse to get out of the car, and Williams jumped me, caught me completely off guard. When I came around again...I had no idea where I was. First I was only subjected to the thugs, which wasn't pleasant in itself. They hurt me pretty badly, fractured my knee among other things."

The man looked as if he might go on, but a visible tremor stopped him mid-breath. It was a few seconds before he even attempted to say anything else.

"After that was over...they took me to that same room that _you_ were being held in. That was where I really met Stolle, where everything else happened."

"Everything else?" Raphael repeated curiously, but then hated the way that Timothy physically paled. "I'm sorry. You don't have to talk about this, I shouldn't have even brought it up. I'm still trying to make some sense out of what happened to_ me_, and I thought if I talked to you, I might get some of it back."

Tim's eyes widened. "You can't remember any of it?"

"Yeah, that's sort of a complicated thing." Raphael told him. "I had amnesia at the time. It lasted for several weeks, and when my memory came back, everything that happened while I was out of it got lost in the mix somewhere."

"You're lucky." Tim said, slightly shaky. "You don't want to remember Raphael. I wish I didn't."

The man shivered again, not able to completely stem the emotional reaction the memory of it produced. "Three, four times a week I wake up in the middle of the night, and my knee still feels like it's completely onfire."

"Like you're being branded or somethin'?" Raphael asked.

"Yeah, a lot like that. How did you..."

"I've had it a couple of times, in my right shoulder." The turtle answered. "I figured it had something to do with Stolle."

"It has _everything_ to do with Stolle. Raphael, he thought I knew you, he told me all the terrible things he'd been doing with you. And then the questions, one right after another. He was absolutely unwilling to believe I had no idea who you were. After a few minutes of going nowhere, he swore he would make me talk. He had this...this device that he used on my knee. It just burned at first, it was painful, but nothing I couldn't tolerate. Then it changed, intensified to a level that...I can't even put into words what it felt like."

Raphael sighed softly. "I'm sorry."

"It wasn't your fault."

"I'm still sorry."

* * *

When Michelangelo woke up again in the morning, Leonardo was the first thing that he saw. The blue-banded turtle was perched leaning partially on the desk, his chin supported by his palm, as he seemed to be dozing.

"Fearless?" Mike called softly, and the turtle came awake as if he'd been shocked by an electric cattle prod.

"Mikey, hey."

"You didn't have to stay." He mumbled.

"No one said I had to Mike. Can I get you something? Or I suppose I ought grab Doc or Donnie."

"Just some water...please."

Leonardo helped sit up the back of the bed for him, after retrieving the straw insert that would make drinking simpler. Mike grunted under his breath as he tried to straighten out his frame somewhat.

"Are you in a lot of pain?"

He shook one hand slightly from side to side. "They musta given me something for it. It's not as bad as last night, still hurts tobreathe too deep. I don't even wanna_ think _about moving."

"Yeah, I'd say you're better off to not even try Mike. How's your head?"

"It's fine, I didn't hit it all that hard, just got sliced and diced a little." The orange-banded turtle said, and stared up at the ceiling for a long moment. "I messed up. I'm sorry Leo."

"We'veallmade mistakes Mikey. Can you tell me what happened at all? How'd you end up with half the cops in New York chasing your shell?" Leo finished with an impish smile, to see if he could get Mike to relax too.

"It was pretty routine." He said, still sounding weary. "Just some idiot guys high on something, giving someone a hard time. Someone else had to have tipped off the cops, 'cause they were there sofast. Them and their dang _dogs_." He said with a shiver. "I couldn't make a clean break. I think they must cross-breed those things with cheetahs. Anyway, I'm sorry I didn't call. I was just trying to get away, and then I didn't want anyone else caught up in it. I know they got me on camera."

"It wasn't great footage Mike, the night vision is only capable of distinguishing so much, and it's still newer technology for them. The only reason Tim recognized you was because he was already familiar with you."

"Where'd he end up Leo? Is he gonna be okay?" Mike asked suddenly.

"He'll be taken care of, we brought him back here with us. Do you wanna see him?"

"Can I?"

"Yeah, hold up a second." Leonardo rose with another small stretch, and peeked out of the Lab door into the living area.

Tim had crashed on the couch hours ago, but as Leonardo glanced out now, he noticed the man move slightly.

"Tim? You awake?"

Timothy sat up at once, rubbing one eye tiredly. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Mike is, and he'd like to see you. Will you come in?"

The man's weary eyes opened wider automatically as he passed through the doorway into the Lab, and took in the room with no small sense of wonder. He had to force himself to snap back to attention, away from his technical surroundings, and accepted a chair from Leonardo.

Michelangelo clearly looked like he'd been trashed, but he still smiled for the man.

"Hey. It's my hero." The turtle remarked casually, and Timothy shrugged modestly.

"I wouldn't quite lump it in the same category of heroics that you guys pulled off for me, but I'm glad that I could help."

"Don't even _try_ to act like it was no big deal. Donnietoldme what you did." Mike replied.

The man made eye contact with him momentarily, before shyly looking away. "It was the right thing to do." He answered simply. "I'm glad that you'll be okay."

"Thank you." The orange-banded turtle said, stretching out a hand in his direction.

Without hesitation Tim accepted it, shaking it firmly. "It's really something to finallymeet you guys. After that conversation with Dr. Sloan, I wasn't sure if I'd ever see you again."

"We're kinda like bad pennies in that way Tim - we just keep showing up, whether you're ready for it or not."

"I wouldn't have thought that I was ready for all this. My head's still sort of spinning. Decades of upholding and enforcing the law, all abandoned in one night of desperation. I'm not even sure how I feel right now."

"I'm sorry for putting you in that spot." Mike said quietly.

"You didn't ask to be there, and I'm sure you didn't deserve it either. Don't worry about me, everything will be figured out on my end. You just rest, get better. The city needs its' Phantoms to be healthy."

Michelangelo cracked another smile at that. "Has someone been swapping rumors with you Tim?"

* * *

The man was still sitting with Mike when there was another knock at the door, about ten minutes later.

"Visitors come early, don't they?" The turtle cast another grin in Tim's direction, and then looked toward the door. "C'mon in!"

There was a flash of auburn hair by the door, not the vibrant color that Michelangelo had always associated with April, but a much softer more subdued version.

"Vic?" Mike said with some surprise. "No work today? You didn't have to drag yourself down here."

The woman graced the turtle with a somewhat concerned smile. "I didn't have anything vital on the agenda, certainly nothing more important than _you_."

"Tim, this is Victoria, she's kinda like the resident Mom." Mike quipped, and was about to introduce the man to her, when Tim got quickly to his feet.

"We've met." Tim said evenly. "I remember you. When I was in the hospital, after the guys saved me...you were _there_, you asked me all those questions."

"Just checking in." Victoria said lightly, giving Michelangelo another fond look. "We all play a part in trying to protect our boys Captain."

The man shook his head slowly. "What is it you doexactly?"

"My husband and I were Diplomats to Australia. I took on another assignment stateside at the Consulate, after he was killed."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Was it recent?"

"A few months before the attack on the United Nations."

"I see. And how did you get tied in with all of this?"

"Jenna belongs to me, my husband and I adopted her several years ago."

"So let me get a handle on this real quick. You have two doctors, two FBI Agents, a Representative from the Consulate, and now an officer of the NYPD. This sounds like the beginning of a joke."

"I'm sorry I wasn't extremely friendly before," The woman said pointedly. "I had to be sure that you were going to keep your mouth shut. You have no idea how hard it is to trust people, until you're keeping a secret of this magnitude. Apparently, I had nothing to worry about." Victoria finished, and pulled over another chair. "Why don't you sit back down? I'm told we have a story to concoct for your disappearance last night. Let's get on that, shall we?"


	7. Partners

***Um...be afraid. Be very afraid. Things are about to get a little more complicated. I'm considering changing that to my middle name. **

* * *

Isaac Stolle shifted his right shoulder uncomfortably, cursing the lack of rotation that he could manage with it. It might have been a different story if he'd actually been to the hospital the night that the turtles had stormed his building to rescue Raphael, but he'd taken enough of a risk even allowing the paramedics to see him. He'd let them patch the injury to prevent him from bleeding to death, before he could reach out to "safer" assistance.

He'd retained old contacts that he had through Morello's circle, despite the fact that he hadn't used any of them since returning to New York after the fiasco in Hillsboro. They had saved his arm, but the man had suffered serious nerve damage from being pinned by Leonardo's blade, and hardly escaped the building in one piece as it was. Kizirnis had ended up being his salvation with only moments to spare, ironically the _same_ individual Donatello had been trying to help when Stolle caught him.

Kizirnis had pushed Stolle ahead of his own frame to get out of the door, and been struck by debris from the explosion, which instantly killed him. Stolle believed the man blocking him was the only reason he had lived through it himself.

_I didn't give that man enough credit_, he mused thoughtfully. _It would have been nice to keep him around._

Momentarily distracted by the memory of that night, Stolle glanced up from his project on the desk in front of him, to gaze at the skyline outside the window of the office. The meager downtown offering of this city was laughable compared to New York, but he'd been merely grateful that hehadsomewhere else to retreat to.

The losses had been heavy, more personal this time. Stolle had been thrilled to hear that he was assumed dead by law enforcement, though he'd already been long gone from the city even before that announcement was made. That would have been a perfect world in his eyes, allowing him ample opportunity to prepare to confront his enemies again, while they had no knowledge that he was even alive.

It was unfortunately corrected months later, but that didn't mean that he was giving up. The last four months since coming here had been a blur, he almost didn't know where the time had gone. Stolle was sorely disappointed and angry to have come that close to his quarry, only to fail. It made him all the more determined now.

The man heard something nearby the door, and glanced over to see a woman, with crossed arms over her chest.

"You wouldn't have to work in the dark if you just did this in the basement, like I suggested to you." She remarked smoothly, as he got up to meet her. "I remember when you wouldn't be caught _dead _up here."

"Things are different now Lilah. Who's going to see me anyway? I have control over every camera in this building, and every individual who has access to them. We're in good shape here."

She smiled at the man somewhat demurely, flipping straight blond hair back behind one ear. Then she looked past him, focusing on what he'd been tinkering on over at the desk.

"Is it ready yet?" She asked him.

"Nearly. The government contract was a stroke of genius Lilah. Everything I need is directly at my fingertips...it's like not even needing to do my own development."

The woman walked to the desk, and lightly ran a finger over the barrel of the weapon Stolle had been adjusting underneath the magnified light.

"You're sure it won't be lethal?" She verified.

"It can go both ways, depending on the output of energy. The men will have to be trained thoroughly on proper usage, so they don't kill someone before their time. Some of these guys, I wouldn't trust with one of these."

"It _would_ be unfortunate to lose one of them in transit, wouldn't it?" Lilah added, and Stolle met her gaze steadily.

"You sound so much like your father sometimes." He told her wryly. "I'm almost there with this, but it would be nice to have a chance to test it."

"This city has a generous population of homeless people Isaac. I wouldn't think it too difficult to find a subject or two."

Stolle nodded. "Truthfully, they could be useful for training purposes as well. I'll have to look into that."

"What about the other matter?"

"Williams? My contact in New York was successful, I only heard from him about an hour ago. With the information I planted in the database, and the corruption of evidence on his end, I don't believe a dismissal is out of the question. His hearing doesn't officially come up for another few weeks or so, but I'll be eager to hear the result of it."

Lilah smiled cooly. "Everything is falling into place then?"

"With any luck, we'll be prepared to cast the bait before the end of May. It's been a _long_, cold winter. I'm ready to see my old friends again."

"I can hardly wait to see them myself Isaac. The footage you provided from the Doctor's home was...enlightening. I just want to be sure that we're capable of _containing_ them." The woman said, maintaining a beatific smile for him as Stolle ran a hand through her blond hair. The even expression in her eyes never once faltered, though the dark though that passed through her mind didn't match it.

_You're so lucky that I __need__ you. All things must be endured for the common goal. I can be patient - it's in my blood after all. __Everything__ will be paid._

Even as she kissed the man, the composure of steel never wavered.

"I've felt different since you came." Stolle told her. "I haven't been this sure of anything, not since I worked for Vale. It's as if you've put things back into perspective for me. It's ironic, isn't it? All these years I've been hunted by the Federal Government, and now I finally have one up on them. Thanks, in most part, to you."

"They don't know who they're dealing with." She cooed directly into his ear._ And neither do __you__._

****

(Four Months Ago)

Stolle had settled back into hiding under another old identity, in a city he hadn't laid eyes on since he was fresh out of college. A job opportunity had brought him here then, but the lingering memories attached to the ever present Air Force Base in the area loomed over him like a constant shadow. His return to this place now was not out of true desire, but simply out of need to lay low, recover, and get back to work.

Lewis alone had come with him, having also escaped the fire that could have claimed his own life. His crony was the one who answered the late knock at the door that night, and then came at once to retrieve Stolle. Isaac had been stunned many times in his life, but nothing seemed like it would compare to the shock of seeing Lilah Stone in his living room.

"Isaac." She said in a flat emotionless tone, making it impossible to read how she was _really_ feeling about seeing him. "It's been awhile."

"H...How did you find me?" Stolle managed to blurt out.

"You can't get any more original than _that_? I have some questions for you too, and you'd better have answers."

Stolle pointed the woman to the couch, and sat down with a sharp breath. "Why are you here Lilah? How are you here?"

"Why should be obvious. Truthfully, I never even thought about you after the disaster last Spring, not until you turned up in the news. You've been a busy boy Isaac. What I'm trying to figure out, is why you stepped outside the boundaries of the family."

"It's a long story."

"Which I've already heard from Rick Morgan. You remember him, don't you? He got a message to me awhile back, asked me to come see him. He was pretty eager to talk about _you_. He said you betrayed them. You let the enemy have free reign, and then you abandoned them."

"No, that wasn't how it happened Lilah, I _swear_! I didn't let anyone in that house, they got the jump on me, just like all the others. The difference is, I had enough brains to free myself! By the time they left, and I'd gotten loose, Vale was already dead. I would have saved him if I could have, and that's the truth."

Her keen dark eyes bore directly into his, and an uncomfortably familiar sensation of nakedness alighted on his consciousness.

"I did leave the others to be caught." Stolle said, sounding wholly unconcerned. "They weren't my problem, I didn't owe them anything. Vale on the other hand...I wouldn't have abandoned him, not if there was something I could have done."

"And Derik?"

Stolle snorted. "Please. I'd have done that boy for you myself, if Vale didn't have such high hopes for him."

A half-hearted chuckle escaped the woman at that. "Was there ever a more useless human being to grace the earth?" She shook her head lightly, and then focused completely on the man again. "Who are they Isaac? What happened in Hillsboro? And how did they get past your security measures, if you didn't allow it in the first place?"

"You might not want to believe what I have to tell you Lilah, but I can prove it to you."

****

(Present Day)

Stolle's paranoia had always made him a better follower than a true leader, and Lilah was acutely aware of how to manipulate the man. While she had no interest in Stolle's delusions about the turtles being tied into some plot with the government, she still had plenty of motivation for wanting to catch up with the objects of his pure obsession.

As she gazed at Isaac now, it was all she could do to keep from laughing outright in the man's face. He was so easy to control, without even being forced to verbally direct him. Some of her methods had been more crude than she really wanted to pursue, but Lilah would have been an idiot not to take advantage of the obvious attraction that Stolle had displayed toward her for years.

A firm partnership had been established between the two, in which her own powers of persuasion and deception combined seamlessly with Stolle's technical genius. Taking on the management of the poorly staffed Information Technology Center hadn't been a difficult task with Stolle by her side, supplying all of the necessary expertise to make her appear credible for the position.

It was the same expertise hidden behind closed doors, that had garnered the attention of the Air Force, and subsequently provided Stolle with his own window inside of the government's technology for the first time. It was an opportunity he had by no means wasted.

_We won't hunt you down like dogs, oh no, _she thought grimly. _You'll come to __us__, and when you do, death will not come quickly. I mean for you to suffer slowly, so that I can relish every moment._


	8. Hopes

(Six Weeks Later)

April contained a somewhat amused smile, as she watched the orange-masked turtle give the frying pan a flick, trying to more evenly distribute the vegetables he was frying up, without losing a single piece.

"I must have seen you do that a thousand times Mike, and I still don't know how you keep it all together." She remarked.

"It's all in the wrist Ape. C'mere and taste this, will you? It ain't hot enough for me, but I don't wanna burn anyone else out either."

She accepted a utensil from the turtle to try the stir-fry, and cocked her head as she tested the heat level. "I think you could definitely kick it up a little more, just don't go crazy. It's nice to see you in the kitchen again."

"Take-Out gets old after awhile. Karina's great when she's got the time, but the extra practices with the Company have been wearing her pretty thin."

April retreated to her chair, while he went back to tending his pan. "How much longer does she have to do these doubles?"

"Once the performances actually start, she'll finally have some room to breathe again. She's _got _to be ready for a break. The nice thing is that her part is just to whip them into shape, and then she can sit back and watch the fruits of all her labor."

April glanced around as if a certain _someone_ would hear her, and then gave Michelangelo a secretive smile. "Raph's been so cute with her."

"You know how he feels about that term."

"I've never seen him like this." April said quietly. "He had such a rough time of it, y'know? Part of me thought the whole experience would only make him harder."

"Instead of the tub of goo that Karina's about reduced him to?" Mike chuckled to himself.

"I wouldn't go that far Mike, but she's certainly had an amazing effect on him."

The turtle stared at the stove for a few seconds without speaking, and gave his pan another half-hearted shake.

"Mike?" April said questioningly. "What's the matter?"

"It's just easy to forget." He replied. "Life seems to go on, and we get all wrapped up in other stuff. Then you remember...he's still out there."

"Kat and Greg are watching for any sign of Stolle that could come across the board." April said slowly. "And Donnie gave Luke the upgrade of the century. But it still doesn't actually make anyone feel safer, does it?"

"We're not the ones immediately at risk." He said emphatically, blue eyes meeting her gaze again. "All of you are constantly exposed. Thanks to Stolle's plants, he's gotta know everybody now. I think you guys just need to quit your jobs, move down here, and be done with it."

"I think it could get a little cramped Mikey."

"We could always expand." He said impishly.

"Yes well..._your_ part in construction would probably still have to wait awhile yet." She was trying to play with him, but only succeeded in making him frown.

"It's ridiculous." He grumbled. "I've never felt helpless for this long in my entire life."

"Your strength will return Mikey, you just have to ease back into it."

He rolled his eyes, though not in reference to the woman. "So they tell me."

* * *

The figure burst into the Master Bedroom so suddenly, that Luke actually fell off of the bed in his attempt to jerk upright quickly.

He scrambled to his feet, cheeks coloring the instant that he saw the woman. "Dagone it Kat, you scared me to death!"

_"I _scared_ you_?" She demanded. "Why didn't you answer your phone?"

Luke noticed for the first time that she'd drawn her service weapon, and then reached for his belt where his phone should have been.

"Oh..uh...I must have left it downstairs. I'm sorry." He said sheepishly.

The woman's shoulders sagged with the sheer amount of emotion that had just finished coursing through her, and she holstered her weapon. "I told you to never let it out of your sight."

"I know, I said I was sorry didn't I? I didn't do it on purpose, and I sure wasn't expecting you this soon."

"I left early. I haven't been able to settle down Luke, you know that."

The man lowered himself to their mattress, and patted the bed beside him. She sat down with a great sigh, resting her head momentarily on his shoulder.

"I'm ready for a real get away anytime that you are." He reminded his wife with a wry smile.

"It won't help Luke, not this time. We could go away for awhile, but when we came back, things would be exactly the same as they've been."

"I don't think it's healthy to be this consumed by that man Kat." Luke told her as gently as he could.

"Don't you think that I want to move on as much as you do?" She said a little severely. "But I can't, _we_ can't, not until we have some surety about him."

"You're burning out Kat." Luke said to her. "I know your signs. You've got to find it in yourself to get out of the Bureau for a little while, even if it just means that you're hanging out with me." He finished with a rather impudent smile.

"I am tired Luke. And I'd hoped this Spring that we could..."

"We could what?"

"I thought I might finally get off of the pill."

He gave his wife a double-take. "You've been thinking about kids?"

"It has crossed my mind a few times over the last two years. We've talked about this before, you _do_ still want them, don't you?"

"Yeah, of course_._ But I never wanted to push you into anything that you weren't ready for. The work that you do is so important--"

Katherine cut him off mid-sentence with a deep kiss. He was clearly a little startled, but then eagerly returned it.

"I lived and breathed that job for a long time Luke, but it doesn't take first place in my life anymore. You're the most important thing to me." She paused for a moment, a smile curling on the edge of her lips. "And I want to have your baby."

He embraced her fiercely. "Then let's do this Kat - there's no time like the present." He said feistily.

Katherine firmly planted both hands on his shoulders. "Hon, I want this. I've wanted it for awhile, but...Luke, I can't walk away from work yet. Not until we find him."

"That's what you're holding out for?"

"My gut says he isn't going to quit Luke. _Twice_ now, you've been in mortal danger because of these people. He still has to consider you to be his best target. I don't want to sit back, and wait for him to show up again."

She could read the disappointment in every fiber of his being, and it made her physically ache as well.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. "Luke, you knowI love you. I don't want to lose you. Please don't be mad at me."

He rested a hand against her cheek, wrapping his other arm around her back. "I'm not mad. I'm just tired of being controlled by someone else. It has to stop."

"He'll make a mistake Luke. He's made them before, and this time will be no different. But you understand why Greg and I can't back down on this, don't you?"

He nodded with a sigh, as she wrapped both arms around him again.

"So you left work early." He said casually. "What's the occasion?"

"Just my gorgeous husband." She said a little playfully, and then cast a glance at the laptop that Luke had been using on the bed. "But I wouldn't want to get in the middle of your work."

The man reached over to shut the laptop, and placed it swiftly on the bedside table. "Why would I want to spend the afternoon transcribing, when you're sitting right in front of me?"

"Good answer Doctor Barrows."

* * *

_"So many times you pushed me away_

_And tried to make me see_

_It couldn't last_

_You thought that it was better this way_

_Afraid to hold me back_

_Despite all our past_

_*_

_But I'm desperate to make you see_

_That without you I'm incomplete..."_

Jenna suddenly stopped both playing _and_ singing, glancing up at Donatello with a small smile.

"Why'd you stop?" He asked at once.

"You can hear the produced version soon enough."

"I'd rather hear your version. Someone else singing it is great, but it's not the same thing."

"The whole point is to sell the songs Donnie, for other artists to use. You're supposed to be happy for me."

"Don't I sound happy?" He grinned. "I just wanna hear _you_."

She rolled her fingers across the keyboard again, just to oblige him.

_"Now there's nowhere else_

_That I wanna be_

_Than safe here in your arms_

_Sighing contentedly_

_And even though_

_You're so afraid_

_I've never been more sure_

_Than how I feel today_

_So take a breath_

_And don't push me away."_

She looked down at the floor a little shyly, as Donatello got up to join her by the keyboard. It took him a moment to see the tears that were in her eyes.

"Jenna..." He said softly, cradling her chin in his hand. "What is it?"

She sniffed and tried to smile for him, not very convincingly. "I um...I wrote that, the night before the attack on the UN."

"The night I was a moron." He said morosely. "I nearly thought I'd succeeded in driving you off permanently."

"When I was trapped in that building, part of me didn't believe I was going to get out of it Donnie. And another part of me thought that if I couldn't be with you...I'd rather just die there anyway."

The turtle knelt suddenly in front of her, encircling both arms around her waist. "I'm so sorry Jen." He told her, unable to prevent his own voice from breaking.

She leaned over the purple-banded turtle, pressing as close to him as she could manage. "That's not needed now Donnie." She said quietly firm. "I just haven't visited this song in awhile, and it stirs up all the emotions of that night, and that day. It's forever emblazoned on my memory anyway, but somehow...the music takes me back, like it all happened yesterday. But we've come a long way since then, haven't we?"

A nod was all he could manage for the moment, as she tugged his arms to get the turtle back up on his feet. No more words were even needed.


	9. Lead

"Mike, _stop_, that's enough. You could hurt yourself worse." Donatello chided his younger brother as firmly as he could.

"How am I 'spose to work it back up, if you guys won't let me do anything?" Michelangelo complained.

"Hey, you think I don't know exactly how you feel? You stress those muscles too much, and you'll be right back where you started. Stop pushing - it isn't worth that." Donatello answered more gently.

The orange-banded turtle sighed in resignation, and slid against the wall for support. "I feel like I ought be able to lift more than forty by now."

"You'll get there Mike, I promise. In the meantime, I can't let you overdo it. I can be tough on your shell if I have to be."

His brother relaxed into a small smile at that. "You're a pushover. Leo wouldn't let me anywhere near the weights."

Donatello gazed at his younger brother for a long moment, and shook his head at him. After all these years, Mikey was still the hardest one for him to say no to. He had clearly seen the frustration in Michelangelo's frame earlier, and allowed him to work out a little harder to ease some of the tension. Pulling him back now wasn't easy, but it was necessary to put his foot down for _his_ sake.

Despite the fact that things had evened out so much among the brothers, the bond he and Michelangelo had formed as young training partners had never truly lapsed one bit. And out of all of his brothers, none seemed to be more keenly aware of Donatello, or able to gauge what he was really thinking with a mere glance.

Michelangelo's blue eyes bore a quizzical expression now, when Donatello didn't respond verbally to him.

"I won't go too far bro, I swear." He assured him.

Donatello cuffed his shoulder lightly. "I'll make sure of that."

"Yeah,you and what army?" Michelangelo challenged playfully. "It's just as well I stop now anyhow. I wanted to pull something on Raph before the afternoon was out."

"Mikey, why do you have to pick on him so much? You prank him about three times as often as the rest of us."

"Because it's so easy Donnie. _You _don't like to fight back all that much, and Leo is all cooland methodical about retaliation. Raph just blows up - it's instant gratification. You know you wanna help me."

"No thanks Mike. I have to spar with him in the morning again, and I don't wanna give him any more ammunition against me."

"One of these days, you're gonna actually have to get back at him for the time he drugged you Donnie."

"That was last year bro, I'm so over it."

"There's no statute of limitations on retaliation Donnie." Mike replied with a devious smile over his shoulder, as he reached for the doorknob.

He never saw Raphael waiting on the other side, and Donatello was hardly able to get a syllable off before their older brother moved in for the kill.

The red-banded turtle promptly shoved two paper plates of shaving cream on either side of Mike's face, his shoulders already shaking with laughter. "Not_ today _numbskull." He taunted with a wide grin, and then pointed a finger at Donatello. "You have chosen wisely."

The orange-banded turtle was thoroughly bewildered as he rubbed his eyes, but had to laugh himself. "How did you know?"

"You think I don't recognize that plotting face of yours by now?"

* * *

Katherine was so relaxed in Luke's arms that she was half asleep, but she still heard her phone buzz. There merest vibration on top of the mantle startled her fully awake.

"Let it go." Luke murmured, as she tried to sit up.

"I can't do that hon, you know that." She told him as she escaped his grasp.

He made a face at her as Katherine made the mad dash to get to her phone. She rolled her eyes slightly when she saw that it was her partner, but she was already up now anyway.

"Hello Greg. You can't make it one afternoon on your own big man?"

"James, you've gotta get back in here. We've got something."

"_What_ something?"

"Well, you know that guy Williams pre-trial hearing was today--"

"And that it got dismissed." She interrupted. "Is this you trying to get on my good side?"

"James, someone got in contact with him at lock-up, not ten minutes before he was scheduled for transport to the courthouse. I haven't heard the actual recording of the call yet, but we were able to trace the origin of it to someplace in the Midwest. Call probably came from a disposable cell, so there was no actual address to go along with it, but they talked long enough for us to triangulate his bearings. Get this - it came back as Dayton, _Ohio_."

"Do you really think it was Stolle? What's his connection to Ohio?"

"Asked myself the same thing James, seemed pretty far reaching to me too. I decided to go ahead and do some research on it, before I went getting your hopes up. I'm not a complete bonehead. There _is _a connection, two different intersect points. Stolle's dad did a stint at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in the seventies. It was the second to last place that he was stationed before all the treason charges came down.

Then, Stolle came back to Dayton after he got out of IT, worked at some company called NCR. It was the last job he actually held as Eric Greene. After that point, his real identity faded into the woodwork, and Stolle emerged on the scene later in New York. James, I don't think that this is a coincidence. I think he's been hiding under some other assumed identity, somewhere he feels safe, and not immediately recognizable."

Katherine let out a very deep breath. "Have you talked to Kelley?"

"No, not yet. I didn't want to take it to him without you, you're better at the words and all. I think this could seriously be our break partner."

Katherine glanced at the clock. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

She hung up the phone, and glanced over at her completely bewildered husband.

"You're going back in?"

"Luke, we might be on to him. I have to go talk to Greg, and meet with my Director. If it goes the way I hope it will, we'll probably leave right away."

"This had better be one heck of a lead Kat." Luke grumbled from their bed, and the woman returned to give him an apologetic kiss.

"I'm sorry hon, I have to go."

* * *

Luke roamed the house aimlessly while she was gone, now completely unable to sit in one place himself. He thought about getting back on the computer, but his mind certainly wasn't going to focus on medical data at this particular moment. He kept waiting, hoping for the phone to ring, so that Kat would give him some kind of confirmation.

As much as he'd tried to convince everyone that he was alright, nerves still struck him on a regular basis, particularly when he was alone in the Brownstone. Roughly and hour and a half passed before Katherine walked in the back door, and Luke bolted upright from the position he'd only recently taken up in the living room.

"Kat, what's going on? I thought you were going to call me!"

"Sorry Luke, Greg and I had fast talking to do, and some serious convincing of our Director on this. But it's done, and we're leaving immediately. Greg will be coming back in about an hour, so I've got to get a few things together."

"Just like that? Did you get a flight to--"

"No Luke, we'll still need a car once we get there. You know how Greg feels about rentals. His Jeep is fully equipped, we'll be better off with it anyway."

"So you're driving to Ohio? What about a team?"

"No team yet hon, we're just going to investigate. If Greg and I can find solid evidence of his whereabouts, we'll get in contact with the Marshals to help on the collection."

She was already in motion as the words left her mouth, and Luke hurried after her up the stairs.

"Maybe I should go with you too." He said as he pursued her.

The woman whirled on heel to look at him. "No. No way Luke - you're not getting within ten miles of that man again, not if I can help it. And with Williams out now, I don't want you even staying here. How do we know this won't be his first stop?"

"Kat--"

"No Luke. I want you to get yourself underground, the second that I leave."

"Geesh, can I allow my face to be seen in public?"

"I don't care about public, just get away from this house. I know the guys won't object to you hiding out with them."

"And how long am I supposed to stay undercover Kat?"

"I don't know yet. I'll be in touch Luke, you can bet I'll be calling you more than I check in with the Bureau."

"If you find him, what are you going to do Kat? Are you really going to wait for help?"

"Luke, I'm giving you my word. Greg and I won't try to take that man alone. If we get a clear sign of him, we won't proceed without back-up."

"How are you even going to start looking when you get there?"

Katherine shrugged openly. "We'll begin with the information we have, hit the Base, and his former workplace. Greg doesn't think it's an accident that the call came from Dayton, and neither do I. I have a feeling about this Luke - I think we're going to find him.

Now stop talking to me, and start getting a few things packed yourself. When I leave, I want you out this door, I mean it. And you're not to come back until I say so."

"When did you get so bossy?" Luke asked impishly.

* * *

Luke made the call to Leonardo a few minutes later, as he was waiting on the back porch for some sign of Greg.

"Of course you can come Doc," Leonardo told him. "You don't even have to ask. Are they sure about going alone? There might even be a possibility that..."

"Leo, if she won't let me go, she's sure not going to want any of _you_ tagging along. I'll be down after awhile, I just want to see her off with Greg first."

"Okay Doc. We'll get a place set for you down here."

As Luke was hanging up with the blue-banded turtle, he heard a familiar honk come from the alley. The man sprinted down the walk way, and opened up the gate for Greg. The Agent pulled his Liberty in near the garage, and shot Luke a thumbs-up as he unrolled his window.

"We're gonna get the bastard, mark my words Luke."

"Kat promised me that you guys wouldn't try to take him alone Heff. I wanted to come, but--"

"Are you outta your mind?" Greg cut him off. "That ain't happening."

"Trust me, Kat already killed the idea."

Greg glanced past Luke as her heard Katherine coming down the walk, and then Luke turned back grab her suitcase from her.

"Hey, you're not staying here, right?" Greg called a little nervously, after he'd finished loading his wife's suitcase for her.

"No, I'll pull out right after you do, gonna stay with the guys." Luke assured him, and gathered up his wife one last time.

They kissed, and she tugged sharply on his collar.

"Be safe." She ordered.

"_You're_ the one trying to chase down a psychopath." He retorted.

"Remember what I said."

"I do, and you'd better remember it too. Don't try to be the heroes - you guys aren't lone rangers."

"I'll call you soon."


	10. Watching

Raphael rested his chin silently in both hands as he watched the practice on the stage below, from his hidden perch overhead. If you'd told him even six months ago that he would be watching so many men dance in tights, he probably would have laughed for a week. But he'd started coming out to the auditorium on a random basis, just to watch Karina's efforts with the Company. He'd been amazed to discover the amount of skill and stamina that actually went into all of it.

_They might look a little like pansies, but weaklings they ain't_, he said to himself, smiling when he noticed Karina cast a glance over her shoulder at the empty auditorium behind her.

_Yeah babe, I'm here. Told you I was comin'._

The humans below were engaged in the rigorous activity of preparing for their opening night. As Raphael continued to watch, Karina resumed walking up and down the stage, offering encouragement and feedback, as well as some demonstration. Through the window he could just barely hear her voice, when she raised it further to address several dancers at once on the front line of the stage.

"...Yes, you have the movement, you know the choreography." She was saying. "There's not a doubt in my mind that you could perform eventonight_, _and blow the minds of the audience. But now I want you to focus a little more on where the emotion is coming from in this portion. There's a difference between delivering a performance that will impress someone, and doing it in such a way that _moves_ them.

They can walk out of here completely satisfied, and sure that they got their money's worth. But six months from now, will they remember it? Two years later, will the thought of it still bring tears to their eyes? _That's_ the difference. We can easily impress them for an evening, simply with the talent that all of you possess. Or you could move them in such a way, that even hearing strains of the same music will reproduce the same feeling you gave them that night.

That's what we all should strive for. I know the rush you feel, just getting the opportunity to perform on this stage. But your power doesn't have to end here. You can leave a lasting impact on those that watch, any of you can. Art isn't supposed to only be about entertainment. The very best kind becomes a part of your soul."

Karina stepped in line with six of the women, and took them through the steps again together, easily matching their pace. Raphael caught his breath slightly as he watched them, and shook his head.

_I think she's crazy sometimes. She ought be on that stage dancing __with__ 'em, not just teaching them the steps. There's no WAY she's really too old to get started._

He hated being so far removed while they were practicing. Getting to watch Karina dance up close was an exercise in amazement - he could hardly take his eyes off of her.

The woman called out to the dancers to take a break a couple of minutes later, and cast another meaningful look over her shoulder in Raphael's direction. While the men and women settled down in chairs and on the edge of the stage, Karina swiftly separated herself from them, striding up the center aisle of the auditorium. After being certain that no one was following her, she made for the stairs, and started climbing what would end up being six flights.

Raphael was waiting for her directly at the top, with something of an exasperated look. "I told ya you don't have to drag yourself all the way up here Kari. You just making sure that I'm actually here?" He finished with a wide grin.

She punched him in the shoulder with a bit of a breathless smile. "I believed you. When you go to the trouble to behere, I like to come see you."

"They're looking good down there."

"Do you think so Raph? They're ready, I know they are. They've got to be the most talented group I've ever worked with before, I'm so excited for them, I'm so..." She trailed off for an instant, laughing at herself. "I'm sorry, I'm talking a mile a minute here. It's an amazing feeling to be a part of something like this."

"_You_ look good down there too." Raphael remarked. "I can't help thinking you should be going on with them."

"Raph, it's okay. I'm happy with the work I'm doing, though I'm glad not all the shows will be as intensive as this one. Opening nights a couple of days away, and it's a relief in some ways. I've missed my time with you."

"You still see me every night."

Her lips lightly brushed his, and then she pulled back to focus on his amber gaze. "It's not the same Raph. But I won't be anywhere near this busy on the next project - I won't be theonlychoreographer. That will cut down on the number of practices for me alone."

The red-banded turtle stroked her neck a little longingly, bringing his finger to rest on the abstract bull of her pendant, then initialed a more serious kiss than the last. "You have to go soon, don't you?" He reminded her, even though he didn't really want her too.

"They won't complain about getting a longer break." She giggled, nuzzling contentedly against his chest. "It feels so good right _here_. Do you think they'd notice if I didn't come back?"

"I dunno Kari, seems like somebody would." The turtle quipped, and then stole another kiss from her. "Go on. They'll get antsy soon, y'don't want them to come looking for you."

"Thanks for coming Raph. I guess I'll see you in about an hour and a half."

* * *

Michelangelo ventured into the Lab, and immediately heard the incessant sound that signified Donatello was still working. He didn't normally like to bother his older brother when he was in the middle of something, but he had a strong feeling Donnie was trying to stay busy for some reason.

The purple-banded turtle turned slightly when he heard Mike coming, and caught a glimpse of the turtle out of the corner of his eye.

"Hey," Donnie said evenly, pushing away from the keyboard a little. "Sorry about dinner. I've just been a little caught up in here, you know how it is."

Michelangelo had learned a long time ago that the best way to get his old partner to open up was to be up-front with him. "Donnie, why are you avoiding Doc?" He asked point-blank.

"Who said I was avoiding him?"

Mike gave him a look, and yanked another chair over to join him by the computer. "You've barely said ten words since he got here, and now you've been holed up in the Lab for hours."

"I have deadlines, I'm trying to keep on track."

"_Donnie_."

Donatello rubbed his forehead as if he were nervous or tired, Michelangelo guessed it was a combination of both.

"What's the matter with you two?" He pursued.

"Nothing Mike, there's no problem with us."

"Then what's with the disappearing act?"

Donatello glanced at the door, as if someone was going to come walking in at that very moment. "I'mnervous Mike, and I don't want him to see it. He has enough reason to be worried, without _my_ fear feeding into it."

"Your fear of what?" Mike asked. "Is this about Kat and Heff running off to Ohio?"

"I don't like it Mike." Donnie said tensely, as he looked down at the floor. "I have a bad feeling about this. That man is an absolute snake."

"Donnie...they can handle themselves. And you don't really think they'd go after the man single-handedly, do you?"

"_They _aren't the problem Mikey. Of course they can handle themselves, but so can you, and Leo, and Raph. That didn't stop them from getting ahold of you. They're bad guys, they don't play fair.

Knowing what we do about Stolle, I'm not sure how to feel about this lead. Geesh, I mean...it just doesn't make sense that he would let himself get tracked that way. All he had to do was hang up the phone sooner, he had to know that!"

"Isn't is possible that he made a mistake Donnie?"

Donatello shook his head. "_Anything_ is possible Mike. I just don't think it's very likely."

* * *

"Luke, really, I get enough of the hospital when I'm actually working." Marcus said with mock exasperation. "Do you have to inflict 'House' on me on the off hours?"

"What?" Luke said, actually sounding as if he hadn't heard a word that his friend had just said to him. Luke had been staring vapidly at the screen, but it was now apparent that his mind was somewhere else entirely.

"I asked you if we have to watch the medical drama. Are you okay Luke?"

"Oh, sorry. Here, watch what you want." Luke replied, still sounding distracted.

Marcus took the remote from him, but only to turn the TV off.

"You didn't answer me." Marc pressed him.

"About what?"

"I asked if you were okay."

"I...I'm fine Marc." Luke _tried _to sound convincing.

His friend sighed softly. "There's no sense in keeping this to yourself. If you're anxious--"

"What's there to be anxious about? They're just checking into his whereabouts, right? And they don't even know for sure that it was really Stolle on the phone. Maybe _Williams_ has some family in Ohio or something."

"Maybe." Marcus said evenly. "But in any case, they're professionals. This is what they do, what they're good at."

"So there's no reason to worry." Luke added at once.

"I don't think you should be borrowing trouble Luke. They only left a few hours ago, I'm sure they're not even there yet."

"Then _why's_ Donatello freaked out?"

Marcus cocked his head at Luke strangely. "What makes you say that Luke? I thought he seemed preoccupied, but he gets that way sometimes anyway, right?"

Luke rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. "He's playing 'keep away'. He wouldn't do that right now, not unless he was worried."

"Yeah Doc," The turtle's voice carried suddenly, from the direction of the Lab. "I've been avoiding you, and I'm sorry. I don't like this situation, and I didn't want to make you feel worse than you already do." Donatello told him.

"You weren't fooling me Donnie." Luke said a little reproachfully.

"I'm sorry Doc." The turtle repeated. "I didn't want to complicate things."

"Maybe we shouldn't even talk about it for right now." Luke said a little dismissively. "Mike's got some classic DVD's around here somewhere, doesn't he? I think I need to see something funny."

"I can hook you up with his Three Stooges Doc, but I won't be responsible for the floodgate you may inadvertently open up with Mikey." Donnie said impishly.


	11. Changed

Katherine jogged back to the Jeep, after paying for the gas and some fresh coffee inside the convenience store.

"Hey, you sure you don't want me to drive some?" She offered.

"No James, I'm alright. Just keep talking to me - we've only got a couple more hours to go." Greg replied, and paused to take a careful sip of the hot liquid before re-starting the Liberty. "So...what's been running through your head these last five hundred miles?"

"What I'd like to do to that man, if we can actually get our hands on him."

"James, you know we really can't..."

"It's wishful thinking Greg. I know we can't really kill Stolle - not unless he forces our hand. You don't think he actually would, do you?" She said with a smirk.

"We can dream, can't we?" Greg laughed, as he pulled back out on the main road.

"There are times when I truly envy the boys." Katherine said a little wistfully. "And then I come back down to earth, and tell myself I'm an idiot. It's only for completely selfish reasons anyway."

"You mean 'cause_ you'd _like to run around kicking the crap out of people, and not have to be accountable for it?"

"Isn't that what we all secretly wish for in this line of work?" Katherine laughed a little shakily, and then sighed somewhat tiredly. "I've also been thinking about our first move."

"I hope you mean after we sleep." Greg cracked. "Flying does have its' advantages partner."

"We're probably going to have to run around the suburbs Greg - and you're the one who's so in love with your car."

"She's always seen me through. But seriously now, where are you thinking we should head first?"

"It might surprise you, but I think we should take a crack at the Base."

"That is surprising - particularly because their information is likely more about Stolle's father, than the man himself that we're looking for."

"I agree with you, but...I think it's better to start at the beginning. In Stolle's case it was the literal beginning - he was born in Dayton." Katherine said thoughtfully. "Then he ended up right back here after college, only to retreat there now as well? There's something significant about his past tied to that city, beyond his father being stationed there. It's the place where he let go of his real identity."

"True, but that part also seemed to coincide more with the time frame that he was with NCR. You're the boss here James, I'm just thinking out loud."

"I'm not the boss of us." She replied swiftly. "Those are simply the lines I've been considering along. If you'd rather hit the workplace first, there's no reason that we couldn't."

Greg pondered himself for a few seconds. "Our best bet for getting any leads out of NCR, would be to find someone who worked there in the same time span that he did. Any of the other information they have, where he lived and all that junk, it's public record anyhow. But you're getting one of those instincts here, aren't you James? I guess we should start at the Base. As long as they're cooperative, they should have access to the more sensitive information that might give us some kind of direction."

He cast his partner a quick glance, and then looked back at the road again. "You're still planning on leaving all this grand stuff behind soon, aren't you?"

"You knew it would come sooner or later. You're ready to trade me in for a younger model anyway, aren't you?" Katherine said with an impish grin.

He laughed at the statement, and shook his head at her. "There's no replacing you partner. I've given it some real thought, and I decided that when you back out, I'm going to work on getting myself reassigned, something in Intelligence maybe. No wisecracks."

"Not even Greg - I know it'd be a good fit for you. You have a way of finding the needle in the middle of the biggest haystacks imaginable." The woman paused with a sharp breath. "And I owe you a lot for it."

"James, you don't owe me anything - I feel like I should be thanking _you_. This last year has been life altering. Everything that used to feel like it was so important...it sort of seems like things have been flipped around on their head. You know how it is. You live the job for so long, and part of you thinks it can't get any better. I had the intrigue, I had the women, and I had myself. Nothing else seemed to matter all that much.

Then in one weeks' time, these old eyes of mine had a rather rude awakening. When I think about my life before I knew...everything...it feels pretty pathetic."

"I would never have called you pathetic Greg. A self absorbed, cocky, womanizer maybe."

"Please James, tell me what you _really_ thought of me." He chuckled, and then gave vent to a weary sigh of his own. "I'll be glad when this is all behind us, and we can just get back to a normal existence."

"You're not gonna miss the field? The excitement?" She asked him.

"Nah. Let the young pups have it. Maybe I can come back in to assist here and there, y'know, as one of the dinosaurs with valuable life experience."

"You're not that old Greg."

"Nights like this, I kinda feel like I am." He mused, and then pointed toward a freeway sign that they were fast approaching. "Hundred miles to Dayton." He remarked.

"Good," She breathed. "I can't wait to get all of this behind us too."

* * *

Leonardo had been standing in the hall outside the bathroom for about fifteen minutes. The light was on, so common sense dictated that someone was in there. He'd been waiting patiently, but was rapidly getting curious now. It was just after 1:30 in the morning - what could someone be doing in there right now?

He knocked on the door lightly for the first time, and waited for some kind of response.

"I'll just be a second." The voice was distinctly Michelangelo's, but his tone clearly wasn't normal.

"Mikey? Are you okay?"

"Fine, I'm fine." The orange-banded turtle called back, but the last "fine" was extremely shaky.

Leonardo pulled the door open, and immediately saw his younger brother huddled on the floor directly by one of the sinks. He moved swiftly in his direction, dropping on the cold floor beside him.

"What happened? Are you in pain?"

Mike hesitated, but then nodded slowly.

Leonardo reached over to take the damp rag from him, which he'd been clutching half-hearted against his plastron.

"What were you doing?"

"The heat was helping...a little."

"Maybe, but it's freezing on this floor. C'mon, let's get you up."

Michelangelo accepted Leonardo's help in rising, but wasn't able to straighten up completely when he got there.

"Mikey." Leonardo said with instant concern. "Don't do this again. Come get one of us if you need help, or just call us."

The turtle didn't say anything in response, as Leonardo supported him firmly around the shell.

"Let's get you back to your bed, and I'll grab something for you."

He got Michelangelo safely back to his room, and then trotted down to the Lab to find a heating pad for him. When he returned, the blue-banded turtle paused in Mike's doorway for a moment, as if thinking.

"Maybe I should grab Donnie or Doc." He wondered aloud.

"_No_." Mike said quickly. "Leo, it's alright, it really is. I'm just sore. I pushed it too hard, and I'm payin' the price for it now."

Leonardo gave him a slightly reproachful glance. "I warned you about this."

"Leo, don't start with the lecture. Why do you think I didn't ask anybody for help? Thanks for everything, but I don't need to be reminded how dumb I am."

"You're not dumb Mikey." Leonardo said quietly. "But I don't like to see you hurting this way."

"This too shall pass, right?" Mike said with nearest glimmer of a smile, sounding more like himself again.

"Yeah." Leonardo replied. "You're probably gonna need to use some ice tomorrow too. And I'd hold back a little more if I were you. Thus ends my lecture."


	12. Plant

Katherine and Greg wanted to hit the ground running, but had to spend their first few hours in Dayton getting some sleep in a hotel, before venturing out into the suburb they had pulled off into. A little after 1pm, they were sitting in a small roadside diner nearby I-675, trying to get their bearings. While waiting for food, Greg had been pouring over a book of local street maps that he'd picked up at a gas station that morning.

"Geesh, they have 675, 75, 35, 70...I sure wasn't expecting this complicated of a network of highways. Thank God for GPS, right?" Greg said ironically.

"Why are you going over all this junk, when it's already in the computer Greg?" Katherine asked with some amusement.

"I like to at least create the illusion that I'm on the level with the computer James. So...since we're already in Beavercreek right now, all we need to do is get on 675 to get access to certain areas of the Base. What time did your contact say she could meet with us?"

"Not for another couple of hours, so we have some time to kill."

"What's it gonna be partner, shopping or laser quest?"

She cracked a smile at his last suggestion. "I don't think you can handle me beating you again."

"The last time doesn't count James, there were outside factors beyond my control."

"Oh _right _Greg - and what's you excuse for the three times before that?"

"There has to be a way we could sneak the guys into one of those places sometime." Greg chuckled. "Ninja Laser Tag - I can see it now. Bet you wouldn't stand a chance against Raph and me."

"He may have aggression on his side, but I totally claim Mikey. We'd kick your tail Heffernan."

"We might just have to put that to the test James. I can't let you get soft, now that you're going to retire from all the _real _action."

A wistful look entered the woman's golden brown eyes, and Greg gave her a second glance.

"Are you really ready to let it go partner?" He asked, and she nodded without hesitation.

"It's time. Luke and I have talked about kids in the past, and we're not going to get any younger. He'd make an amazing dad, and he really wants this. So do I for that matter, more than I ever thought I could. I guess that's what's supposed to happen when you meet someone you want to spend forever with." She replied, and then paused for a second. "Hasn't there ever been anyone that could fit that bill in your life?"

"Certainly not in recent years. I'd just been playing for the most part - until the last year that is. It'd be nice to have what you do James, but I don't know." He sounded a little far away all the sudden, and then intentionally changed the subject. "Raph's pretty stoked over your sister, ain't he?"

"They both seem very happy, God knows they deserve it." Katherine replied. "It feels like I'm getting to know Karina all over again, only better than I ever did before. I can't believe I was so blind to her, for such a long time."

"Have you given any thought to your brother James?"

"Brandon?" She said a little dully.

"Do you have some _other_ brother hiding out in California?" Greg teased her, and then got serious again. "Really James, with both you and your sister in New York now, it just seems like you're going to have to let him in at some point. The two of you are kind of all he has, aren't you?"

Katherine sighed deeply. "You've no idea how guilty I feel, leaving him completely in the dark. Trust me, Karina and I have kicked this around, I've even danced around the subject with Leonardo. I'm not sure how Brandon would take all of this."

"Are you worried he'd have a problem with Raph and Karina?" Greg had to ask.

"I don't know. I think we could trust him not to do anything that would hurt us...but like all things where the guys are concerned, it's complicated. I love my brother Greg, but I don't think that I know him any better than I thought I did Karina. I've been some big sister, haven't I? First I completely uproot to New York, forge my own life, and make all kinds of excuses not to go back out West. And now both sisters are living this secret life, that my own brother has no knowledge of. Sometimes, I wonder how I sleep at night."

"You could be taking it a little hard on yourself James."

"You think so?" She answered. "I don't. I've shut both of them out for years, and it hasn't been fair. I didn't know how to balance everything Greg, so I didn't even try to."

"What did Leo say when you brought Brandon up?"

"He understands how important family is. He never said I couldn't tell him, Leo wouldn't do that, not with the way things are with Karina and Raphael. He just asked that I proceed carefully." Katherine finished, giving her cell-phone sitting on the table an absent-minded spin. "Karina's Company has their opening tonight. I'm a little disappointed that I won't be there."

"She understands, doesn't she?" Greg asked.

Katherine snorted, nodding emphatically. "I think she understands better than any of us, truth be told. She knows the stories about what Raph went through at Stolle's hands better than anyone."

She almost jumped a couple seconds later, when her phone vibrated underneath her hand. Katherine glanced down at the screen, and held up a finger at Greg.

"Hey Donnie...We're just hanging out right now, waiting around for our appointment at the Base...You did? Well, we thought about hitting NCR first, but..._what_? You're messing with me....Oh, that's just perfect, I feel like an idiot. No, I know you weren't trying to step on our toes, thanks for telling us. I'll call you when we get done at Wright Patt."

As Katherine hung up, Greg cocked his head at the woman.

"What was that about?"

"We didn't do our homework on NCR."

"What do you mean?"

"Their headquarters moved last year, they're not based out of Dayton anymore. Went down to Atlanta, something about some big property tax breaks, and nicer weather."

Greg actually smacked himself in the forehead. "Well of all the stupid...I'm sorry. I looked into Stolle's records, not so much recent action inside the Company."

"Neither of us checked on it - we were just in a hurry to get going. Don't forget that the call traced the man to _Dayton_ Greg, and we still have some information to act on. Let's not panic here."

* * *

Their visit to the Air Force Base later that day provided an unexpected link, that neither of the Agents had honestly been expecting. While pouring over old files on the service record of Stolle's father, the woman assisting them had volunteered a name, a local contact person that was tied into the profile.

Katherine had left Greg to continue digging, while she stepped outside the office to attempt reaching the person. She only hoped the phone number would still be reliable._ There's no telling how old this information is. Please, please let this be something._

A woman picked up on the second ring, causing Kat to stand up straighter.

"Yes, hello? Is this Lilah Stone?" Katherine asked immediately.

"That's right." An even tone returned. "May I ask who this is?"

"Ms. Stone, my name is Katherine Barrows. I'm with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and I was hoping that I might be able to meet with you."

"What's this about?" The woman responded.

"You were listed as an old contact point for Lieutenant Sean Greene. I have some questions about the man."

"_That's_ a name I haven't heard in years. He's already locked up forever as I understand it. Why come to me now?"

"It's not so much about him, as it is his son Eric." Katherine clarified.

"Eric?" The woman's voice distinctly trembled. "No, you...I can't. I can't get involved with this."

"Ms. Stone, it's very important that we find him. If you have any information that could help us, we need to hear it." Katherine said, gently persistent.

"He left, Eric left years ago. What do you people want from me? I can't help you."

"We have reason to believe he might be back in your local area Ms. Stone. Won't you at least talk with us?"

"Back? No, he can't be, that's not..." The woman on the other end trailed off, a frightened breath catching in her throat. "I...I can't say anything. He'd find me. You don't know what he's capable of."

"You'd be surprised." Katherine said dryly. "We can protect you, but we really need your cooperation. Can my partner and I meet with you?"

* * *

Lilah hung up the phone a couple of minutes later, after setting up a meeting with Katherine for the following evening. A satisfied smile graced her lips, as she hit another speed-dial on her phone.

"Isaac." She said pointedly when he picked up the phone. "They bought it."


	13. Hanging Out

***Enjoy this - it's the last bit of fluff you'll get for awhile.**

* * *

"Leo, are you sure you don't need any help in there?" Donatello called over his shoulder, in the direction of the kitchen.

"I have it under control!" The blue banded turtle insisted, through the closed kitchen door.

"Why's it smell like something's been burning for awhile?" Mike added his own voice into the mix.

"Must be your imagination." Leonardo replied coolly, as he ducked his head out into the living area. "It'll just be another minute."

"You've already had twenty Leo - sure ya don't need back-up?" Raphael smirked from across the room.

They heard an audible ding in the background, and Leonardo whirled on heel to get back to the microwave. He returned to the living area with a bowl of only slightly overcooked popcorn, smiling sheepishly at his brothers.

"All done, see?"

"How many batches did you ruin?" Raphael asked him. "That's the last time we leave it up to you."

"It's perfectly edible." Leonardo said defensively, as Luke came trotting back down the hall, phone still in hand from having just talked to Katherine.

"Oh man, who let Leo use the microwave?" The man quipped as he sat down on the end of the couch. "Do you know how long burned popcorn can smell?"

"I think you're gonna have to put popcorn back on the shopping list Donnie." Mike couldn't help adding.

"Everybody needs to lay off." Leonardo said firmly to the entire room, sitting down with a flounce into one of the chairs. "That's the last time I try to do something nice."

"_Really_ Fearless, you don't gotta be nice." Raphael assured him.

"Yeah, okay, laugh it up everyone. What are we watching?" He asked, just to change the subject.

"We still have that episode of the Unusuals that I recorded--" Donatello started.

"But we can't watch that, 'cause it would get Raph into trouble with his girlfriend." Mike interrupted with a snicker.

The turtle fixed Michelangelo with an amber glare. "All I said is that she wanted to see it too Mike. It's nice for her to get to watch some of this stuff at the same time as me."

"No bro, I understand completely. I wouldn't want to interfere with your cuddle time or anything - we can definitely watch something else."

"You'd _better_ shut your trap while you're still ahead." The red-banded turtle said warningly.

"I fully support how cute the two of you are together Raphy." Mike said with a grin, as he got out of a chair a little stiffly.

His comment produced what could have been described as a disturbance in the Force, and Donatello actually snagged Raphael's arm, to prevent his brother from immediately rising too.

"Where are you going Mike?" Luke called after him.

"Bathroom - am I allowed to do that alone?" The turtle quipped with a backward glance.

As he disappeared, Raphael shook his head at his younger turtle. "That's one dead turtle walking. How much longer before he's mine Doc?"

"Don't even think about it yet." Leonardo said swiftly, before Luke could even get a word off. "I walked in on him after 1 in the morning last night - he's still really hurting."

Both Donatello and Luke snapped to attention at that.

"Leo, why didn't you say anything before this?" Luke said a little sharply.

"He seemed to be feeling better this morning." Leonardo shrugged. "He told me that he pushed it too hard yesterday."

"You mean I _let_ him push it too hard." Donnie said tersely. "Darn his shell - I should have known he wouldn't say anything."

Raphael's hardened expression had already faltered. "What's wrong here guys? Why's it taking longer than before? I thought you said he'd be okay in a few weeks."

"He is okay Raph, he's just not really recovered." Luke said quietly.

"How do those statements even go together?" Raphael demanded.

"With injuries like these, particularly when they're re-occurring, strength can be diminished, and pain can be chronic." Luke told him evenly. "Marc said he doesn't expect permanent impairment, he's simply not healing as quickly as we'd all like him to." The doctor glanced down the hallway, in the direction that the turtle had gone. "He could be vulnerable to worse injury if he's not careful - I really need your guys help in holding him back."

"Look, it's my fault Doc. I won't let it go that far again." Donatello said bluntly, dropping the television remote on the table with a great clatter. "Why's it _always_ gotta be something?"

No one said anything right away, and the room was still cast in the unnatural silence when Michelangelo emerged from the hallway into plain sight.

"Are we gonna sit here like boring bumps on a log, or are we getting this party started?" He asked, either completely oblivious to the change of mood in the room, or choosing to ignore it entirely.

Donatello opened his mouth to say something, but then thought instantly better of it. "Luke, which DVD did you pick?" He asked the man instead.

The doctor was completely lost as to what Donatello was talking about, so the turtle simply pointed at an assortment of four movies sitting on the coffee table.

"Just choose one." Donnie urged him.

"Okay...uh...I say 'The Man Who Knew Too Little'."

"Good pick Doc. Why don't we get it started, so we have a chance of finishing it before the girls get back?" Leonardo suggested impishly.

Michelangelo settled back into the recliner while Donnie was putting the movie in, and his blue gaze flickered across the whole room to take in his brothers and Luke in one swift motion.

_It's amazing how fast things can shift. I gotta do a better job at hiding this_.

Donatello seemed to sense his younger brother looking his direction, and met his gaze with an anxious glance of his own.

_This is great, now he'll really be up in arms. Next thing I know, they'll be restraining me in the Lab like they had to with Raph._

A certain sense of protectiveness had always weighed heavily on the four brothers for each other, but Mike didn't enjoy being the object of everyone's concern at once. He'd tried to remain his normal positive self, if for no other reason than to worry them less. He offered a smile at Donatello, and his brother finally reached for the remote again.

* * *

Roughly two hours later, Jenna and Karina came in the door together. Everyone seemed to perk up at once, and both Donatello and Raphael got up to greet their girls.

"So how'd it go?" Leonardo asked them.

"Packed out." Jenna said gleefully. "Oh, I wish you guys could have seen it. The show was _amazing_."

Karina looked tired, but exceedingly happy. She fell into Raphael's embrace, sighing deeply. "It went better than I could have hoped for. I'm so proud of all of them."

"You ought be proud of yourself Kari. It was all your moves, your training." Raphael told her, a hint of pride entering his own voice.

"You know I really want to see it too." Luke spoke up apologetically. "I just wanted to try and wait for your sister."

"It makes perfect sense Luke." The woman replied. "I never knew it was possible to feel this fulfilled.

As the words left her mouth, she found herself caught up in Raphael's amber eyes again, his fingers barely grasping one of her hands.

_Truly fulfilled, in more ways than one_, she added inwardly.


	14. Web

*** Our foundation is set, and hey, it only took me thirteen chapters - time to get down to business.**

* * *

(24 Hours Later)

"...It sounds promising Luke." Katherine told her husband over the cell. "We're going to meet with her now, and I'll call you when we get done."

"Do you really think that this 'Stone' woman can help you? It seems like a weird hour for a meeting, or interview, whatever you call it."

"She's scared stiff Luke, we're not even meeting at her home. She directed us someplace west of Salem Avenue. It doesn't look like a good area, but you know Greg and I can look after ourselves."

"Why couldn't you get her to come to a station or something?"

"Luke, we're lucky she's talking with us at all - she didn't want to. She's probably going to be a tough nut to crack as it is."

"Be nice Kat. You know the saying, you'll get more flies with honey than with vinegar."

"I'll do my best hon. I'm really hoping that she'll be able to help us. We're already running a little late, we had a hard time finding the place. GPS sure isn't infallible. We stopped at this little Drive-Thru for directions, and this creep tried bugging me."

"I'm sure you put him in his place."

"I handled it. So I don't know how long this will take, but I'll call you later."

"Alright Kat - I love you."

"I love you too. Talk to you soon." She replied, and hung up the phone, and glanced at her partner.

"Are we doing this?" Greg asked.

"Yeah, let's move before we get any later. You still want me to do the talking?"

"It's your specialty James, that and kicking butt. That's why I've kept you around for so long." He said sardonically.

* * *

The blond woman that met Katherine at the door of the house was already skittish, but when she laid eyes on Greg, she outright trembled. The woman held the door ajar only a few inches, large dark doe eyes widened in fear.

"I...I don't know about this." She wavered. "It isn't a good idea."

"Ms. Stone, we're already here." Katherine said evenly. "Why don't you let us in, and we can take things nice and easy from inside?"

The woman's gaze flitted to Greg a second time, and Katherine realized at once how nervous the man seemed to make her. Nevertheless, Lilah opened the door the rest of the way, and let the two Agents into the house.

"I um, I don't want to waste your time." The blond said quietly. "I don't know what I can tell you..." She trailed off, her apprehensive stare falling onto Greg yet again.

"Ms. Stone, perhaps you and I could talk alone?" Katherine suggested, casting an apologetic look in her partner's direction.

"It would be better, I think. Do you mind coming to the back?" Lilah requested.

"Whatever makes you the most comfortable." Katherine said quickly, and then turned to the man. "Greg, I--"

He shook his head firmly, his gaze now falling on another woman sitting on the couch, of obviously questionable character.

"It's alright James." He told her. "I'll wait here."

As Katherine and Lilah disappeared down the hall, the other woman rose from the couch with what was a rather seductive smile.

"Seein' as it's just the two of us, how about joining me in a drink?" She offered.

Greg backed slightly away from her advance, uncomfortable, but also curious if _she _might know anything. "I guess I could go for some water, but you don't have to go to any trouble."

"No trouble at all." She assured him. "I'll be right back."

* * *

"Would you like to something to drink, before we get started?" Lilah offered Katherine immediately, seeming more at ease the moment Greg was out of her sight.

"No, thank you. I don't want to take up a tremendous amount of your time." Katherine answered. "Why don't you just start at the beginning, and tell me what you can about Eric?"

"I haven't seen him in such a long time."

"That's alright." Katherine assured her. "You'd be surprised what creatures of habit many criminals are. They like to be where they're most comfortable, where they feel safe, particularly if there's a paranoid disorder involved. Start wherever you can, take as much time as you need."

Lilah wasn't in a big hurry to get anything out. She was extraordinarily emotional, pausing for long moments in between describing what was her first chance encounter with the man of the hour.

They had been back in the bedroom for almost twenty minutes, when a woman's scream tore through the hallway. Katherine was on her feet in an instant, turning in surprise when the stranger from the living room burst inside.

"Quick, come quick, he--"

Katherine didn't wait for her to finish the statement, she swiftly pushed past the woman to get back out to the living room. She wasn't present to see the confident nod the woman gave to Lilah.

"Nice work - I'll finish it. Keep it together a little while longer." Lilah told her.

Meanwhile, Katherine had only just discovered her partner on the living room floor.

"Greg? C'mon, Heffernan, what's the matter with you?"

She rolled him off of his side onto his back, quickly checking for a pulse. She located the steady throbbing without issue, but concern was still growing. Katherine patted him insistently, hoping for some kind of response. It had literally no effect - he was seemingly oblivious to anything she did.

Katherine heard the other two women coming, and glanced over her shoulder.

"Will one of you call 911 please?"

"Amber, grab my phone from the back." Lilah instructed her friend, and came to Katherine's side. "What's happening?"

"He's breathing, he has a pulse, but he's out cold. It doesn't make any sense."

"That _is_ strange," The woman said evenly, bending closer to the two of them. "Does he have some kind of a medical condition?"

Katherine was focused on her partner, and unable to contain a small shudder. "No, nothing that I know of."

She was about to say something else to Lilah, but the feeling of something sharp jabbing into her arm stopped her before she could speak. The Agent turned just in time to see the woman withdrawing a needle.

"What are you _doing_?!" Katherine demanded.

She tried to rise, but in the space of seconds it had taken to react, waves of dizziness were already crashing over her.

"It's been so nice to meet you." Lilah said sweetly. "We have much more to discuss, you and I."

"But...why?"

"Patience Katherine, one step at a time." Lilah soothed mockingly, pushing the woman down easily on the carpet. "For now, all I have left to say is 'good night'."

It felt like something was pinning Katherine to the floor, even though Lilah wasn't holding her down anymore. Her eyelids were so heavy, she couldn't prevent them from closing. Part of her was fighting inwardly to stay awake, but it was a completely losing battle. No amount of sheer will could prevent the dark curtain from descending, which it quickly did.

Lilah smiled with satisfaction, and pulled out the cell-phone that had been in her pocket the entire time.

"Isaac, it's done. We're ready for you."

* * *

The man arrived with five others in less than ten minutes, and came in through the back door.

"I want to see them." He said immediately.

Lilah led him to both of the Agents in the living room, and Stolle actually laughed out loud.

"I think you were right about this Lilah. Taking the two of them is _worth_ the risk. The turtles care more about their human friends than their own skin, and Luke...this will devastate him."

"That's the point, isn't it?" The woman said calmly. "And it wasn't even difficult. Do you want to get started searching them?"

Stolle was already in full "tech" mode, his scanner prepared to search for the implanted transmitters that his enemies seemed to favor. He was extremely thorough with both of them, and surprised when his scan didn't indicate any frequency activity. He double-checked his work, just to be sure.

"Something wrong Isaac?" Lilah asked.

"They're not bugged, and I truly expected them to be." He answered. "I even made special arrangements for it."

"What arrangements?"

"When I caught Raphael, I had to _physically_ remove his implant. I didn't discard it at the time - I'd hoped to use it as bait to lure his brothers to a location of my choosing. That didn't work, but the study I was able to perform of his transmitter did yield another helpful discovery for me. The same scanner I use to locate their beacons, now has a built in feature that can destroy the transmitter's tracing capabilities. I won't have to perform any more 'search and destroy' surgeries."

The woman nodded approvingly. "Then we're set to go ahead and move them, aren't we?"

"Yes, but I think it's better to keep them out of it for a few hours yet. We should follow up the doses they already received with a stronger one, within the next hour." Stolle told her, and then called Williams to come into the room.

The hulking man had been brimming with anticipation to catch up with the two Agents again. He fixed Katherine with a glare of pure unadulterated hatred, before yanking her upright off the floor. Two more men came to retrieve Greg, and followed Williams to the van out back.

"What about physical trace?" Stolle asked Lilah.

"I didn't leave any." She said matter-a-factly. "We just need to tie things off with my little helper, that 'Amber' woman. At least I think that's her name. It's better not to leave any living connections behind."

"I agree, I'll have Williams see to her. Where did you even find that woman?"

"Corner of Salem and Grand." Lilah replied. "When do you intend on dangling the bait?"

"Not until morning."

"And what about their effects that can be traced - the watches and phones?"

"We'll leave them intact for the moment, until our message is delivered anyway." Stolle said, a little distracted as he was playing with the touch-screen on Katherine's cell. "I never could make a dent in that medical scanner technology that Luke had back in Hillsboro. If this phone has similar protection, it probably isn't worth the time it would take me to hack it. Not when we already have a _listed_ phone number anyway."


	15. Revelation

***Writing some of this made MY skin crawl.**

* * *

Marcus was nearly finished unloading the dishwasher the next morning, when his land-line suddenly rang from the living room. He was "old-fashioned" as far as his group was concerned, in the sense that he still believed in actually keeping a home phone in addition to his cell. He dashed to the next room to grab the hand-set, yanking it off the hook on the third ring.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Sloan, what a privilege." A voice dripping with sarcasm came through from the other end. "I didn't expect to reach you in person, what with your saving the world one limb at a time during the day, and devoting every other spare moment to your _mutant_ friends."

Marcus held his breath for a few seconds, as he tried to decipher the voice. "Who is this?" He finally asked.

"Do they really have that many enemies? It wouldn't surprise me. Do I have to get on some kind of waiting list, or are you capable of getting a message to them for me?"

Marcus sank slowly to the couch, nearly forgetting that he needed to breathe again. "That would seriously depend on what it is. What do you want?"

"Nothing from you dear fellow, only your cooperation in delivering my news. I would assume Luke has been trying to reach his little wife by now. Could you tell him that she and her precious partner are rather indisposed for the time being?"

Marc had the sensation that the floor had just dropped out from underneath him, and couldn't even speak right away.

"Are you still there Doctor? Do you need your inhaler?" The man said disdainfully. "Go ahead, I can wait a few seconds."

The circumstances at hand and the man's goading suddenly forced something to snap inside the usually mild-mannered doctor's mind, and he swore at the man strongly.

"So help me Stolle, if you've hurt them, we'll make you WISH you were dead!"

Isaac laughed scornfully at him. "It's about a ten hour drive Doctor - you'd better tell your boys to get on the road. Or will you be driving them this time too?"

"You're gonna regret this, I _promise_ you!"

"I believe this will be an interesting experiment for all parties involved." Stolle said coolly. "They call the Agents their 'eyes and ears', don't they? I can't wait to see how they function without them. I have to go now, I have just one such Agent about to come around on me here."

"Stolle--"

But by the time Marcus had the word off, the infuriating man had already hung up the phone.

* * *

Katherine felt like she was buried under a load of bricks, her entire body extremely heavy and uncooperative. Even opening her eyes was proving to be more of a chore than it should have been. She felt someone's hand graze her face, and then smooth down her bronze hair.

"Mm..." She stirred a little more at the contact, groggy thoughts still not completely cognitive. "Luke?" She murmured softly, when the hand didn't leave her cheek.

"Guess _again _darling." Stolle said, in an overly friendly patronizing tone.

Her eyes suddenly found the power to snap open at that, landing on the object of all her fury and rage. She was utterly confused as to what had happened or how she'd gotten there, but she wasn't about to let Stolle see it.

Katherine fixed the man with a savage glare, and jerked her head away from his hand. She struggled somewhat uselessly against the grips that had her strapped down, and Isaac laughed.

"You are seriously wasting your time Agent." He told her. "Those bonds are magnetically sealed - another brilliant piece of technology, courtesy of the US Air Force."

The look in her brown eyes only darkened further at that. "You're not getting out alive _this _Stolle, I guarantee it! You've made your last mistake."

"Would that be anything like the mistake where I led you here intentionally?" He smirked at the woman. "You were so kind to play along with me. You must have thought you were pretty smart."

"Only compared to some." The woman shot back.

The man's grey eyes narrowed considerably, and his fist connected solidly with her jaw.

Katherine shook the blow off defiantly. "You're a brave one Stolle. Why don't you let me go, and _then _try hitting me?"

She felt him split her lip open with the next blow, but didn't give the man the benefit of even seeing her wince.

"I knew you'd be fun to deal with." Stolle said casually. "You've no idea how much I enjoyed my time watching you."

"Is that because you can't get a woman of your own?" She retorted.

"That's where you're wrong Katherine - and she was _more_ than enough woman to deal with you. I can see that you won't make this easy on yourself, not that I expected you to. But by the time I'm finished, you'll be begging to die."

An unusual smile graced her features. "It's unlikely."

"You should have asked Raphael about me. Everyone has a breaking point my good woman - and I will sincerely enjoy finding yours'."

"And I will sincerely enjoy watching you die." She replied placidly, her smile never faltering.

His hand grasped her chin with sudden violence, twisting her head in a very painful direction. The man's nails dug furiously into her skin as he bent further over her ear. "I don't need you alive Agent. The others already know that I have you, and they'll come for you regardless." He said coolly, a coy smile then growing. "But it would be so much more rewarding for Luke to watch you die."

Isaac heard something from the door, and glanced up to see Lilah waiting.

"You just hang tight here." Stolle patted Katherine's cheek, and straightened to meet the woman over by the door. "How close is the other?" He asked quietly.

"Extremely - I believe Williams already called 'dibs' on him." Lilah laughed. "Isaac, would you mind giving me a few minutes with her?"

"By all means, I love to watch Williams work anyway. She's got some mouth on her - this could be very interesting."

"I believe I might be able to make an impact Isaac."

"Go for it. I'll come back later, and we can get her moved to one of the holding areas."

Lilah nodded, and waved Stolle out the door. She approached Katherine with a self assured smile, and drew a chair over so that she could sit next to her.

"Agent Barrows...or is it James? Not that I actually care." The woman said non-chalently.

"Ms. Stone, you can't think that this will end well for you. Why are you helping Stolle? I told you that we could protect you!"

The woman chuckled, only a hint of a dark tone revealing itself underneath the sound. "I don't require protection from Isaac. Everything has proceeded exactly the way that we intended, even if you were faster than we anticipated you being. Though after all the time we've planned, I appreciate not having to wait around."

"Why are you doing this?" Katherine asked, before she could stop herself. "Stolle's a paranoid freak with a false sense of reality. What's your excuse?"

Lilah's smile tightened slightly. "Well, we agree on something." She said very quietly, and then raised her voice again. "The truth Katherine, is that I have much more motivation for catching up with the freaks_ you _hang out with, than any of the others in this place."

Kat stared at the woman absolutely mystified, though she didn't want to show it.

"I understand you Agent," Lilah continued. "There's really not much to you. You're so desperate to be taken seriously in your own strength, you'd probably curse Stolle to his face no matter what he did to you. It doesn't matter what he does, because pain doesn't frighten you. But your husband and your friends...now that's another story, isn't it? You'd get down on your knees and beg for their lives, before you'd ever cower for your own."

"You have to catch them first." Katherine said, trying to sound confident.

Lilah laughed. "Do you think it will be so hard? I mean, look at you. You've had almost twenty years of Tai Kwon Do, and I took you down all by myself."

"You cheated." Katherine spat at the woman.

"Honor only exists in the imaginations of the creatures you'd die to protect Katherine. The whole point is to get what you want, using whatever means necessary. That's not hard for people like Isaac and I."

"You won't find them." Katherine said sharply.

"That's the beauty of the situation dear, I don't have to. You know very well that they won't abandon you or your partner to us, and they're not going to trust the police or the FBI. They'll come looking themselves. I'm sure they'll need help, what with you and Agent Heffernan out of the way, unable to give them any guidance. We'll make certain that they get it, but a few days of helplessness won't kill them."

"What do you have to do with all this? Who are you? I'm already here, so there's no sense in keeping me in the dark."

"None indeed. I am a _woman_ Katherine, born into what is still in many ways a Mans' world. You know what that's like Agent. Always having to push twice as hard as anyone else, just to maintain your own position and respect within the Bureau. It's why you compensate so much with the tough exterior. Even though you'd like to break down on the inside, you'd never let Isaac or I see it. But that will change when lover boy gets here, won't it?"

"If you touch that man--"

"You can be sure I'll do more than that Katherine. In fact, the only reason you're alive at the present is to give this a more satisfying ending." Lilah cut her off. "Your husband and friends fates will be no different than your own, though much more painful."

"Why?" The woman verily exploded from the chair. "At least tell me that much! Are you so in love with that mad man that you'd honestly kill for him?"

"You've been rather amusing to me Agent, but that will wear out sooner than later." Lilah told her, then resting a hand lightly on her arm. "Do you know what it's like to lose the only hope you have in the world?"

"I've lost many things."

"Yes, and been all the stronger for it I wager. But the kinds of men that I have to deal with, aren't as progressive as the rest of the world at least pretends to be. Within the Family, the chromosomes still carry around all the weight. I had an opportunity, an opening if you will...but a year ago, that chance was ruined beyond recognition."

Katherine blinked hard in frustration. "What, does this have something to do with that scum Vale?"

The woman's dark eyes bore the first trace of real emotion for an instant.

"I'll take that as a yes." Katherine said, against better judgement.

Somehow, Lilah's resounding slap made more of an impact in that moment than anything that Stolle had done.

"My _father_ was my 'in' Agent Barrows. Without him, I have nothing. You're going to find out very quickly what it is to be reduced to that."

"Your father didn't give them a choice! And Derik--"

"Oh, I have no complaints on Derik's behalf." Lilah said, the calm exterior once more replaced. "They saved me the trouble of taking care of him myself."

"You'd have killed your own brother?"

"Half brother Agent." She corrected. "And whoever shot him did the world a favor."

Katherine's already pounding head had just taken a turn for the worst.


	16. Disagree

"You can't be serious Leo, I'm not an _invalid_!" Michelangelo said in utter disbelief. "This isn't fair."

It had taken less than an hour to get the entire extended "family" underground, after Marcus had dashed to the turtles and Luke with the news of the phone call from Stolle.

"Mike, I don't want to argue with you." The blue-banded turtle said evenly. "My mind's already made up, and we don't have time to do this."

"But Leo--"

"Enough. We have a lot to do." Leonardo interrupted firmly, and turned to go upstairs.

The room was so quiet at that moment that you could have heard a pin drop, as no one immediately reacted to Leonardo's decision. But it didn't last very long.

"Ladies, can you finish what we were doing down here?" Donatello asked quietly. "I need to be excused."

Without waiting for a response, the turtle sprinted up the stairs in the direction that his older brother had gone, and flung Leonardo's door open with no warning.

"What, that's it?" Donnie demanded of him. "You decide, and no one else even gets to talk about this?"

"Donnie, he's in no condition to fight." Leonardo told him, without even looking up. "You know it's going to come to that."

"And you think Luke and the girls are? Actually, Jenna probably_ could _take some of 'em, but that's not the point. Why do you have to treat Mike like he's some little kid?"

"I'm not trying to Donatello. This is what's best for him."

"You really think making him stay back is what's best? It's not right Leo. I _know_ he's in no shape to throw down, but that doesn't mean you have to force him off completely!"

"This discussion is over." Leonardo answered. "You should be getting ready to go."

"It's not over, because we haven't even discussed it! How are you gonna tell our human friends they can come, and make Mikey stay home?"

"You need to drop this." Leo said sharply. "Karina is Kat's sister, I can't tell her what to do over this. Your wife is never going to listen to me anyway, and Luke has just as much right to go as anybody. Not to mention, we need their help on the open road."

"And what, Mike's just worthless now?"

"Did I say that Donnie? No, those words never left my mouth. I said he's not ready."

"To fight, no. But that doesn't mean he can't come with us Fearless. He's right, this isn't fair. You know good and well that if it was _me_ hurt this way, you still wouldn't make me stay behind!"

"We need you."

"Mike brings more to the table than a mean right hook Leo! We need him too."

"I would never say that we don't Donatello!" Leonardo said heatedly. "I'm done arguing about this. We're wasting time."

"You don't get to make this call on your own Leonardo." Donnie said stubbornly, and met his older brother's glare steadily.

Leonardo held his gaze for almost a minute, before shaking his head angrily. "Then I'm out of it, okay? You do what you want, and _you_ can be in charge." He finally proclaimed. "Now get outta here, and get ready to leave."

His tone made Donatello bristle, but the purple-banded turtle simply turned and left the room. As he came back down the stairs, he gave Michelangelo a meaningful look.

"Get ready to go." He told him.

His blue eyes widened slightly. "Really? So Leo..."

"You're an adult Mikey. You have as much right to be there as the rest of us." Donnie answered. "But you are going to have to watch it. Leo's just worried about you fighting, and he's right. You're not there physically yet."

"Whatever you say dude, I'm not in a picky mood at the moment." Mike said swiftly, and moved to go upstairs himself.

As soon as the youngest turtle had gone, both Raphael and Timothy's gaze fell on Donatello.

"What did you say to him?" Raphael asked.

Donatello held up both arms helplessly. "I tried to reason with him - but he's just ticked at me now."

Tim's gaze flickered between both turtles. "Are you guys sure about this, chasing after this guy on your own? I know you can take care of yourselves and all, but...what about the FBI? This is their own people who've been taken."

"They're _our_ people too Tim." Raphael said plainly. "And calling law enforcement wouldn't end well for 'em. The ball's in Stolle's court now, and he knows it."

"That's what I'm saying." Tim said insistently. "He tried to set you up before. I doubt he's going to break pattern here."

"Of course not." Donatello told him. "He wants us, that's all this is about. We're counting on you to keep this quiet Tim, that is unless we fail. In which case, you should exhaust every resource at your disposal."

* * *

Greg stirred on the cement floor, initially raising his head a couple of inches. He dropped it after a moment, wincing as his equilibrium crashed and spun. The man had the distinct sensation that his head was inside of a blender. A blow to the face absolutely stunned him a second later. Before anything more than confusion had a chance to register, it was followed by a second boot that slammed into him so hard he felt his nose fracture under the pressure.

Greg gasped in pain and bewilderment, blinking back the tears that the blow had automatically produced. It took a few seconds before he could actually see straight, and his dark eyes roved over the faces standing around him. The first couple of them made no impact on his memory - he was certain he'd never seen them. But the other two rang dangerously familiar, particularly the larger of the pair.

_How did I get here? Am I dreaming?_

A third strike that focused on his rib cage removed all doubt of that.

_I don't think a dream could really hurt that much._

"Nice of you to join us." Williams grinned, bending low over Greg's prone form. The man grabbed a fistful of Greg's sandy hair, snapping his head up sharply so that he would be looking him directly in the eyes. "Hm, this feels familiar." The man jeered. "Seems you ended up this way the_ last _time we met."

"And _you_ went down even harder - though I wouldn't be surprised if you can't remember it." Greg retorted.

The man's foot crashed into his wind-pipe, and the monstrosity of a human leveled it there for several seconds with terrible force.

_Shut up Heffernan, _he commanded himself fiercely, as he heard the sound of more footsteps coming his direction.

"Pick him up - I want to see him for a minute." The unseen voice said, and Greg was snagged by both arms, dragged to unwilling feet.

The room was spinning, as if he'd been on the tea-cup ride too many times. He had to blink several times before he could make out the person standing in front of him, and when he recognized Stolle, all knowledge of pain fled in an instant.

"_You_." Greg proclaimed with sudden vehemence, and couldn't withhold a few more choice words from the man.

The smaller man's fist shot out at him, finishing the job of breaking his nose that Williams had started. Isaac chuckled at the sight of his blood, and braced a hand under Greg's jaw.

"You and your partner are two peas in a pod, aren't you? The mouth will get you both in serious trouble."

At the mention of Katherine, the first real wave of cold fear hit the man. Being hurt himself wasn't anywhere near as bad as thinking of the woman being harmed. Frustration welled up inside of him, as he stared at Stolle in stoic silence.

"It seems you learn faster than she does anyway." Isaac allowed sarcastically. "It's truly an honor to have the both of you under my roof."

"What do you think you'll get out if it?" Greg asked flatly. "Our Bureau knows we're here. They'll be looking for us."

"Really, your Bureau?" Stolle smirked. "Is that who you're expecting to come save you?"

"They'll be looking for us." Greg repeated doggedly.

"Is that supposed to frighten me Agent Heffernan? The only reason _you_ got as close to us as you did, was because we led you here. Do you think we wouldn't have provided for the explanation of your disappearance?"

"What are you talking about?" Greg had to ask.

"Things can happen when two people work together for a long period of time, can't they Greg? Should your 'official' people come looking for you, the only evidence they'll find will be related to the romantic tryst you finally abandoned yourselves to."

When Greg swore at the man again, Stolle nodded at Williams, who in turn thrust him so hard in the eye that he almost lost sight of the room entirely.

Isaac patted his cheek sharply. "C'mon Agent, it's not time to check out yet. You haven't heard the good news."

The man's dark eyes struggled to focus on Stolle's blurry image. "What news?" He slurred slightly, just as Stolle had hoped he would.

"I've already been in contact with your people." He answered smugly. "They ought be barreling their way toward Dayton as we speak. I don't want you to worry about how they'll find us - we'll help them of course, after we've let them sweat it out for awhile. You'll have company soon enough Greg."

An uncontrollable tremor wracked his body at the announcement, and Stolle laughed at him again.

"Alright Williams, he's all yours. Have some fun, but remember we still want him alive, for the time being anyway."


	17. Knowing

It had been an uncomfortable ride in both the front and back of the Battle Shell, with hardly more than a few words spoken in the last five hours that they'd been on the road. Jenna had insisted on driving, and Luke had remained up front with her. He was absolutely silent, unless Jenna asked him something specifically. Even then, he wouldn't say anything more than necessary.

The woman stared straight ahead for the most part, casting only intermittent glances in Luke's direction. As she snuck another look at him, he turned slightly to meet her gaze. He was leaning heavily against the seat, tension screaming from every single muscle in his body. His fists had been clenched at his sides, hardly even budging within the last few hours.

He jerked further upright when his phone vibrated, and instantly thought of Marcus. He, Jenna, and Karina were the only ones who'd accompanied the turtles - the rest of the humans had remained behind in New York, at least for the time being. Marcus' main concern was to be near his phone, just in case Stolle would be calling to plant further information in his ear. So his part was to simply wait, along with the rest of the extended family in New York.

When Luke glanced at his phone, he noticed at once that it wasn't the man he'd hoped for, but Mike calling from the back of the van.

"Hey, what's up?" He asked the turtle.

"Doc, do you think we could pull over for like ten minutes?" He requested.

Luke sat up further still. "Yeah, we could probably pull off somewhere. Is everything okay back there?"

"I just need a minute to breathe."

"Alright Mike, we'll keep an eye out up ahead, try to find someplace where you could get out."

Luke hung up a moment later, and looked over at Jenna.

"What's going on?" She asked him.

"Can you keep an eye out for somewhere where we could stop? Mike needs to get out."

* * *

When Jenna found somewhere to pull over, Luke climbed out of the passenger side to check on the turtle for himself. In the back of the van, Donatello was moving to follow him as well, but was cut off by a menacing look from Raphael.

"Let Luke go." The turtle ordered him. "You stay."

"Raph--" The purple-banded turtle started, but his older brother rose from the seat to fix him with a seething glare.

After a couple of seconds, he turned to include Leonardo in the scathing look.

"What is the MATTER with you two?" Raphael exclaimed. "We're in the middle of a crisis, and you're gonna sit here _mad_ at each other? You're being ridiculous, and you're upsetting Mikey too! He knows you're fighting about him. Now you guys have exactly thirty seconds to pull yourselves together, and knock this off! That, or we can take this outside, and_ I'll _finish it, you follow me?"

Leonardo and Donatello glanced at each for the first time since they'd left New York City.

"I'm sorry." Donnie said quickly. "I didn't mean to disrespect you Leo, and I'm not trying to be in charge."

Leonardo closed his eyes for a few seconds with a grimace. "I know that. I'm sorry too, I've been pretty childish. I'm just worried about them, _and_ that something could happen to Mike. Donnie, what are we gonna do? Where do we even start?"

"With the person who started it all." Donatello said pointedly to his older brother.

"But how are we supposed to_ find _Stolle?" Leonardo said in frustration.

"I'm not talking about him." Donatello answered, and Raphael shook his head from across the van.

"_I_ know where you're going with this genius." The turtle spoke up.

Leonardo glanced at the back door, and then motioned to Donatello. "You wanna go talk to Mikey with me?"

The younger turtle got up and followed him outside, as the silent Karina lightly ran her fingers over Raphael's shell.

The red-banded turtle gave her a sidelong glance, amber eyes fastening on her green ones.

"I think you handled that very well." She said with a small smile.

"We've got hard heads, every one of us. Sometimes they just need to be knocked together a little." Raphael replied, scooping up her other hand in his own off of the seat.

The woman had only maintained the smile for a fraction of an instant, before lines of nervousness came back over her face. Raphael swallowed out of his own concern, and the fact that he didn't really know what he should say to her. He sighed softly, and finally tugged on her arm to pull her closer to him on the seat. She settled into his arms, as he lightly caressed the back of her head.

Raphael felt stupid for not saying anything, particularly when she didn't speak either. He knew that Karina was scared out of her mind for her sister, and there was absolutely nothing he could do for the moment that would make her feel any better. Inwardly, he felt like raging at the mere thought of Katherine and Greg being hurt. But for her sake, he fought to keep the anger in check, so that he could focus on offering some semblance of strength in her direction.

* * *

"...We're really sorry Mike, we know we've been acting a little crazy with everything." Leonardo said quietly. "You have to know that I _do _want you with us, I just want you to be okay."

Michelangelo nodded a little solemnly. "I get it Leo, I know I'm not fit for much. But it sure seems like sitting at home doing nothing, would feel a lot worse than tagging along and doing nothing." He let out a deep breath, and cast a glance back at the van. "We should go, don't you think?"

Luke returned to the front of the car, while the brothers climbed into the back. Mike felt physically much heavier than normal, as he collapsed onto one of the seats. The sight of Karina holding back tears and Luke trying to put on a brave face for him was almost too much for the turtle to bear.

_This is gonna be harder than I thought. What good am I gonna do for anyone? It probably __would__ have been better if I had stayed behind in New York. But the not knowing...oh, what difference does it make at this rate? Whether I'm here or at home, none of us know what's going on, what's really happening to them. I'm scared to even think about it._

* * *

Calling, someone was definitely calling him. A persistent voice was repeating his name, tone increasing in desperation over the course of time that he'd simply been listening to it. Greg finally stirred, to find himself on his back on the cold concrete again. His head was pounding so hard, he could hardly stand to open his eyes.

"Greg!" The woman called again, and this time her voice actually clicked in his mind.

"James?" His croaked in return, struggling to rise somewhat on his elbows.

His somewhat bleary gaze focused on the outline of the bars he was surrounded by, and he realized that he was lying inside of what was clearly a cell. He squinted through the semi-darkness to try and see beyond them, looking for a sign of where his partner's voice may have come from. The man attempted to sit up further, only to collapse wearily an instant later.

"Don't try it yet Greg." Katherine's voice carried to him again, tinged with intense concern.

"Where are you?" He called back, as loudly as he could manage.

"I'm not far partner - in another cell, directly across from you."

"What is this place?" He asked her.

"We're in some sort of lock-up Greg, cells are about eight by eight I wager. How much pain are you in? Does it feel like anything's broken?"

"Don't worry your head over me." He said a little more quietly. "Are _you_ alright?"

"Yeah," He answer came back, after a beat of hesitation. "But I'm quickly learning that things are worse than we thought they were." She continued.

"What do you _mean_?" He groaned.

"This isn't just about Stolle anymore, there's someone else involved now. A woman, claiming to be Vale's daughter."

His head jerked slightly at that, and he instantly regretted the motion as it caused an explosion of bright spots around his vision. "He's got another kid? You met her?"

"She's not a kid Greg, I think she's older than Derik was. And it sounds like she favors her father more, genetically speaking."

"How much worse can this honestly get?" Greg wondered aloud. "I don't suppose you're gonna tell me that the room we're in is rigged to explode in five minutes."

"No, but the cell doors _are_ rigged with magnetic seals, which are supposed to stay intact without a power source. The magnetic field has nothing to do with electricity - Stolle took great pleasure in explaining all of it in technical terms."

"So what's it to be James?" Greg said faintly. "Are we the live bait now?"

"Not if I can help it Greg."

"Don't do anything rash, will you? I wouldn't think they absolutely need us alive Katherine."

"I'm not concerned with what they do to me." She said defiantly.

"Yeah James, but you still have to be breathing in order to save somebody else, don't you?" He said ironically, and then tried to sit up again. "Oh God, help me." He groaned, more loudly than he really wanted to. "Not that I expect Him to hear _me_."

"Why wouldn't He Greg?" Katherine persisted.

"I could think of a few reasons, none worth repeating right now." He replied tiredly, as he shut his eyes again. "Please don't try to prove anything James. Can you at least try and keep your mouth shut around these guys? They're not playin' around."

"I can't make you any promises, except that I'm not going down easy partner. You can't expect me to."

A shaky sigh escaped from his cell. "I suppose not. But would you consider not baiting them?"

The woman didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Greg, something tells me that we don't _have_ to bait them. This is nothing more than a game as far as the two of us are concerned, and I think they're going to have as much fun as possible. I'll be darned if I'm going to go quietly into the night."


	18. Tracked

*** Watch out Authors, there's no telling how many of us they're actually keeping an eye on. **

* * *

It was just after 7:30pm, and the group had been sitting outside a familiar house on Ferngrove Drive for close to an hour. It was getting just a little bit tiresome for everyone involved.

"Is it really safe for us to sit here this way?" Leonardo voiced what everyone else was thinking. "What if her parents show up before she does?"

"I agree with him Genius," Raphael added in Donatello's direction. "We ought go look for her."

"Did you do that thing I asked you to, the last time you came out here?" Donatello asked the red-banded turtle.

Raphael's amber eyes actually lit up slightly as he cracked a smile. "Sure did Donnie - that's what gave me the idea of stealing her battery to begin with!"

"You messed with the Author's car?" Karina said incredulously.

"Don't look at me like that, Donnie's the one who wanted me to plant the beacon."

"You mean like a tracking device?" Mike said curiously. "What'd you do that for?"

"She was talking about moving Mikey." Donatello explained. "I was just trying to make sure we wouldn't lose sight of her." The purple-banded turtle was trying to hold back a small smile of his own, as he reached for his laptop to boot up the location software. After the few moments of typing that followed, he nodded to himself. "Yup, there's a signal. Let me get a fix on these coordinates, figure out what she's nearby."

"I don't get all of this Donnie." Leonardo said with irritation. "Why wouldn't Kat and Heff take the implants from you? It would have made all of this so much easier."

"You know why they didn't." Donatello answered, without looking up from the screen. "They didn't want to risk their transmitters ever being discovered by the Bureau. It wouldn't have done them any good regardless. We just saved Stolle the trouble of cutting them out himself." The turtle finished a little darkly, and then suddenly sat up straighter in his seat. "I've got her, she's only about four miles from here. Let me call Jenna, we need to get back out to Stroop Road."

* * *

Sarah shifted uncomfortably in her chair, glancing surreptitiously over her shoulder at the clock mounted on the wall behind her.

_8:23. Man, I hope he can get us out of here early. It'd be nice to get a few more things done tonight, so I don't have to run around like a crazy person in the morning._

Quite unintentionally, her mind drifted, going back over a mental "to-do" list of everything she wanted to get completed that night, and reminders of what she still needed to pack for the morning. Pastor Ed's voice drew her back to reality a couple of minutes later.

"...Alright choir, you have a good night. Praise Team, we're gonna be on the front row."

The majority of the people in the room shifted toward the double doors, and those that remained behind made the shift down closer to the Pastor, Sarah among them.

_Please, oh please let us out of here. I've got so much to do, I can hardly stand to sit still, _she mentally pleaded with her eyes, as he started talking again.

"Okay guys, check this out. I haven't had a chance to update the website yet, so I figured I'd just play the new worship song for all of us to work on together."

_Fantastic._

"Remember to just listen the first time through, and then you can join in on melody with the chorus when it comes back around. When we hit it a second time, you can look at adding some harmonies by ear. So here we go."

While the Pastor was cuing up the music player, Sarah resigned herself to the fact that they still had work to do. As the very first strains of the verse started, she cast a glance at her singing partner Benita, and inwardly rolled her eyes.

_Great, another song where the guys are singing up in the stratosphere. That means the harmonies are going to be unnaturally high too. No wonder so many of the women on these recordings are singing the tenor line._

* * *

Jenna had been tapping her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel in the parking lot. They'd become immediately hopeful when several people had dispersed from the church building at once, but that was fifteen minutes ago, and there had been no sign of Sarah yet.

The woman suddenly unbuckled her seat belt, and opened up the driver's side door.

"Where are you going?" Luke asked swiftly.

"Where do you think? I've been sitting in this van all day Luke, and I'm done waiting. I'm going in there to get her."

"Jen, wait! What if people ask questions?" He pursued her.

"I _can_ think on my feet Luke. You stay here, and I'll be right back." Jenna answered, and hopped out of the Battle Shell.

She jogged across the parking lot, toward the doors that everyone else had come out of. The hallway she walked into was the only area that was immediately lit up, giving her no clue as to where the people had actually come from. There was another set of double doors directly in front of her, and she pushed one of them open experimentally.

It swung open into a large darkened room, and she could barely make out the outline of pews. Jenna backed out of the Sanctuary, and looked back and forth down the hallway again. To the right it only seemed like a dead-end, she was naturally drawn to go the other way. That was directly before she heard the strains of some kind of instrument, that seemed to be coming from the right.

Jenna ventured down to the last set of double doors, and noticed the faint trace of light from underneath the door.

_Bingo._

Jenna opened one of the doors with only a little hesitation, and saw a tall man sitting behind an electric keyboard. He stopped playing the instant that she stuck her head inside the door.

"Can I help you?" He asked.

"I sure hope so. I'm looking for Sarah, is she in here?"

Sarah_ heard _the woman's voice before she saw her, cocking her head curiously at the sound of the Australian accent. When she saw the person who went along with it, she was so startled that her folder that she'd been clutching hit the floor. Pages of music scattered in all directions, but Sarah hardly noticed it. She was too busy staring at Jenna with wide eyes, to even pay attention to Benita as the woman scooped up her music.

A couple more silent seconds passed, before Sarah finally jerked to her feet. "Pastor Ed, I'm sorry, I have to go. I've gotta go right now."

"Oh, it's alright," He replied swiftly. "You team isn't up this Sunday, right?"

"No sir, I wasn't even going to be in town."

"Yes, I remember now." He said, as Sarah quickly gathered the rest of her belongings from the chair. "Don't forget to listen to 'You'll Come', and be prepared to lead it the next time you're up."

Sarah accepted her folder back from Benita, and nodded her head. "Thanks, I'll see you guys."

She dashed out of the room, holding her breath as she joined Jenna in the hallway.

"Oh my word, you're _exactly_ like I imagined you!" Sarah exclaimed, keeping her voice down as low as she could. "What are you doing here? Why didn't you call?"

"We _did_ call you Sarah." The woman said with true annoyance. "For over two hours. You never answered the stupid thing - why do you even have it?"

"I'm really sorry. I keep my phone on vibrate when I'm in choir, I never even realized that it was going off. It's amazing to meet you in person, but why now? I like surprises, it just doesn't make much sense to me."

The woman's light blue eyes conveyed her extreme impatience. "You really can't figure out why we're here?"

"We? Who's all here Jenna?"

"The guys, Luke, Karina...Why are you asking questions? You of all people should know this."

"You haven't told me anything Jenna. What's going on?"

"Katherine, Greg, _missing_?" Jenna said shortly. "Does this ring any bells?"

Sarah took a sharp breath. "Oh _shoot_, and you think that I can tell you..." She trailed off, looking over in the direction of the doors out. "We need to go."

"You're not gonna try pulling this 'author's prerogative' junk on us, are you Sarah? Because we're really not in the mood to take no for an answer." Jenna said a little dangerously.

"Listen, I wanna help you, but it isn't that simple. I'll explain everything, I just can't do it here." Sarah said apprehensively.

Both women walked outside, and someone immediately flashed the headlights from the Battle Shell.

"We should get back to my house." Sarah told Jenna.

"What about your parents?"

"You don't need to worry about them, they're nowhere near Dayton. We'll have the place to ourselves."

"Sounds good Sarah, I think I'll ride with you." She answered firmly.

"You don't trust me, do you?"

"I don't even know you, but I'm not about to let you out of my sight." Jenna replied, and snapped open her phone to make a quick call. "Luke? Go ahead and take the wheel. I'm going to ride with Sarah back to her house."

"Jenna," Sarah said quickly before she could hang up. "Tell him to go ahead and pull all the way into the driveway, down by the garage. I'll let everyone in through the back."

* * *

Nerves were at an all time high, as Sarah let them inside the sliding glass door, a large sheet already draped across her arm. She couldn't hold back an amazed smile when she saw the other two humans waiting under the covered patio. Luke and Karina didn't look nearly so happy to see _her_.

"C'mon, let's get everybody inside, and then I want to get this sheet up over the door." Sarah urged with a swallow.

She felt better to see the familiar faces of the turtles, but they didn't seem to be any happier at the moment. Her own nervousness must have been incredibly apparent, by the way Michelangelo nudged her shoulder as he came in.

"Don't worry Author, we're not here to kill ya." He assured her. "We need your help."

"Right, Jenna mentioned that." Sarah replied, as she motioned everyone through the kitchen, and into the living room. "I think we need to sit down."

"We didn't come to mess with you Sarah." Leonardo said evenly. "We just want to know where they are."

"Okay, see, here's the thing." Sarah replied, as she pulled a kitchen chair into the room. "I don't actually _know_ where they are. I didn't even know that they were gone, not until Jenna showed up and told me."

"How's that possible Sarah?" Raphael growled. "This is _your _scheming, it's all your doing."

"It doesn't work that way, not now that I'm on the inside _with_ you."

"That's about as clear as mud Author. Why don't you try again?" Raphael said stiffly.

"For the sake of explanation, imagine with me that there are two worlds, side by side." Sarah addressed everyone now. "You have the real world where I live, and then you have the fictional realm, where everything that the authors write is reality. We're not_ in _my world right now, and I'm personally not in charge of what's happening at this given moment."

"This sounds like something out of the Twilight Zone," Donatello spoke up. "It's your story, how can you not know what's going on? You were perfectly aware the other times we came to see you."

"That's just it Donnie, you came to me in the real world those times. From inside _your_ alternate reality, I don't have my author's powers of omniscience. I'm just like one of you - I know things as they happen around me. Do you get it?"

"So, basically...you're telling us that we're screwed." Luke said morosely.


	19. Demonstration

Katherine was huddled in the corner of her cell, chills wracking her entire body. She had explored every square inch of the holding area, searching for any signs of weakness in the bars or door. With a tremendous sigh, she glanced across the room to look for Greg again. The man had lapsed into silence, sleeping somewhat fitfully after finding the energy to wash up a bit in the sink. It was the only existing fixture in the cell, besides a toilet in the opposite corner.

There wasn't even so much as a cot or a blanket to offer any shelter whatsoever. The only other uncomfortable discovery she'd made was of the iron rings and manacles hooked to the wall, which the woman found almost immediately after being pitched in here. No one had so much as darkened the doorstep of the room since she'd been left, but she could make out what were obviously video monitoring devices, mounted in a couple of places near the ceiling.

She rested the back of her head against the wall, as she hugged both knees to her chest anxiously. Tears were threatening, and she hated herself for it. But over the course of the last six hours while she hadn't been able to sleep, her mind had been tortured with thoughts of Luke and the turtles being in mortal danger. She'd been on the verge of breaking down for some time, and was now only hanging by a thread.

_I never should have dragged Greg into this_, she added miserably to a growing list of regrets. _I could have found another way to help them when Luke was kidnapped. He wouldn't be involved at all if it wasn't for me, and now he'll probably lose his life very painfully for it. But it's hard to regret the fact that he got to meet the guys. They've helped him in more ways than they even realize._

She smiled faintly at the mental image of Greg and Raphael, who'd become such firm friends in a short time-span, and then almost laughed as she recalled the telling of their_ first _meeting. The half chuckle turned into a somewhat strangled sob, that had become impossible to hold back any longer. A floodgate of tears was opened with it, her chest trembling violently against the legs that were still drawn against it.

"James?" A tentative voice called across from her, after roughly a minute had passed. Greg was in the process of clawing his own way upright. "Don't cry." He verily pleaded, "There's always a way out. This isn't over."

"It's not _me_ Greg." The woman gasped in return. "I can't stop thinking about the others. I'm sorry I ever got you into this too."

The man had made it to a sitting position, against his own wall. "I'm not sorry James, and you shouldn't be either. I wouldn't change one thing from this last year, at least as far as my _own_ skin is concerned. Even if it all does end here, somehow...I don't think it would be as bad, as never getting to know them at all. But don't blame yourself for this. It isn't your fault."

"You have to say that. You've always been a good man Greg."

"No I haven't - but that's not the issue right now. There's no sense in losing hope yet, they don't even have the guys or Luke." Greg pointed out.

"An_ issue _which will soon be remedied." An unwelcome voice announced from the main doorway of the room that they were being imprisoned in. "Good evening Agents. I trust you've had a pleasant stay thus far."

Stolle ambled into what sparse light one of the overhead fixtures provided, and stopped with a smirk in front of Katherine's cell. "Well now Katherine, we're not exactly as 'tough' as we pretend to be, are we?" Isaac mocked the woman.

"Just wait until she makes _you_ cry!" Greg snarled from across the room.

Stolle hardly even allowed the man a backward glance. "You'll get your turn, I promise you Agent Heffernan. It isn't polite to interrupt."

Meanwhile, Katherine had risen to mostly numb feet, and was shooting a dangerous glare at the man standing opposite the bars from her.

"Why don't you c'mon in here Stolle, and I'll show you how _tough_ I am." She challenged outright.

"Coincidentally, that's exactly what I had in mind." Isaac said amiably. "I thought you might enjoy a look at the weapon that will serve as your _friends_ undoing, a small preview if you will. Do try and control yourself Katherine, it has _many_ settings, and further violence on your part will only force me to adjust the power higher."

"I'm not afraid of you." She proclaimed, grasping the bars that he was standing in front of.

"I can see that Katherine - but you should be." He replied, bending close to the bars. "Yes, you very well should be. I'm only warning you once - if you attempt to attack me, you'll make things much harder on yourself."

The look in her eyes didn't seem to indicate that she was in a cooperative mood. Stolle shook his head at her with another smirk.

"You don't have to do everything the hard way Agent, but it _is_ your choice."

Greg had stumbled his way to the front of his cell by now, and watched as Isaac withdrew a metal piece on a ring, which clearly wasn't a key. The object was about half the length of a pen, but thicker. His brow furrowed as Stolle waved the metal rod over the magnetic seal on Katherine's cell, and then raised the barrel of a weapon menacingly before opening the door.

Katherine didn't move immediately, cautiously falling into a protective stance.

Isaac smiled at her tolerantly. "I thought that one more test wouldn't do any harm, particularly when we had to waste our last subject to serve as a distraction for your partner."

"You talk too much Stolle." Katherine told him. "You could save yourself a lot of breath, and just get to the point."

He shrugged. "As you wish."

The man fired a single shot in her direction. The only thing Katherine was actually aware of in that instant was a streak of blue light, and Greg's shout somewhere in the background.

"JAMES!"

But by the time the word was off, Katherine was already consumed by the surge on the ground, traces of electricity spiraling across the surface of her skin. Her body didn't even tremble by reflex, every muscle was completely locked in place. She wasn't able to cry out from pain or shock, because she couldn't even find her breath for several seconds.

Isaac bent low over the woman, very careful not to touch her while the surge was yet dwindling.

"The paralysis is temporary of course." He said to her. "For most of our subjects anyway. You should be pleased to know we only lost four of the initial fifteen to the weapon itself. But if your heart hasn't failed yet, I'd say your chances are pretty good."

"You are_ insane_." The woman said through clenched teeth.

Stolle chuckled as he sat down beside her, and held the weapon directly in her line of sight. "It sounds like something straight out of Science Fiction, doesn't it? The truth is, our Government has been developing energy weapons for decades. The taser has performed rather effectively for me in the past, but it requires a contact point, in order to ground a charge. On the other hand, the energy rifle doesn't need a point of contact to deliver electricity, so it can be used from greater distances, and with less hindrance.

The charge skims the surface much more than the taser did, it can cause some nasty burns on the epidermis layer. And depending on the level of output, it can still easily impact internal organs, the heart most notably. Cardiac arrest, that's how the others died. Well the _four_ anyway, the others we had to finish on our own.

The setting that I used on you should be rather short-lasting, not more than half an hour I'd think. As in all things, moderation is key. If you were to receive another stun, while the residual electricity still existed on the surface of your skin...the results would not be enjoyable, let me assure you."

A frustrated grunt escaped her, as he braced the gun against her chest. "I don't think you would want another demonstration at this particular moment, would you Katherine?"

She seriously considered telling the man where she wanted him to go, but thought better of it. In the end she closed her eyes, and refused to say anything at all. Isaac turned and left the cell a moment later, allowing the seal to become re-magnetized under the direction of the metal rod. The man had barely left the room before Greg had found his own voice again.

"James! James, talk to me! Are you alright?"

"I...yeah." She answered a little shakily. "It's some kind of stun weapon. I can't move. Did you hear what he said? They've been killing people with it."

Greg leaned his aching head against the bars. "I hope he was lying. Maybe he's just trying to scare us."

"No Greg, I don't think he was." The woman replied, as she tried to command limbs to function, to unlock. It was a worthless effort, and she couldn't refrain from crying out in anger. "They're going to be led straight into a trap, and there's nothing we can do about it!"

"They have to be expecting some kind of set-up James, don't give 'em up as lost." Greg tried to say hopefully, but it fell a little flat.

He was in a losing battle to maintain his balance, and finally lowered himself back to the floor.

* * *

Lilah gave Isaac a smile with all the warmth she could muster, as the man returned to the Observation room a couple of minutes later.

"You seem to have enjoyed that." She remarked smoothly.

He rubbed his hands together slightly as he took a seat by the desk again. "Quite, but I'm still biding my time. Just the thought of catching them makes it so hard to sleep at night. I feel more prepared now, and it makes it that much harder to be patient."

"_Impatience_ almost lost you the red one before, didn't it?" Lilah asked.

"That was not my doing." The man replied. "The Bounty Hunters were responsible for his initial injuries. I suppose the old saying still holds true - if you want something done right, do it yourself." Stolle finished in a sort of preoccupied way, as he gazed at the monitor in front of him. "Twice my enemy has made a fool of me. The third time will be different, I'm certain of it."

"Why do you obsess more over _that_ one than the others?" Lilah pressed him.

Isaac turned to glance at her again. "Donatello and I are similar creatures, in a way. His level of brilliance is something that I'm drying to put to the test."

Lilah relaxed further into her chair with a contemplative look. "From the nature you've described them to exhibit, it doesn't sound like you'd have an easy time drawing anything out of him. Do you believe he'll actually cooperate with you?"

"Not willingly, no. But I have other tools at my disposal, which can serve as being _very_ persuasive. And even if pain alone wasn't enough, I still have his family to fall back on. Besides revenge, that's the other reason that it suits our purposes to take everyone alive. What he isn't willing to do for himself, he could perhaps be strong-armed into, to cease the suffering of someone else."

"Does he know so much Isaac?"

"Don't make the mistake of underestimating them Lilah, just because they're freaks of nature. Their skills and physical strength are more than a match for any of the men at our disposal in a fair fight. And their connections run deep, a much more complicated network than I at first imagined. I always believed that they had some sort of ties with the FBI, but the Bureau themselves seem to have no knowledge of them. It is something like a secret society, _within_ a society.

I won't be able to feel completely confident holding the others, unless we already have Donatello intact too."


	20. Searching

*** FYI - Most information I give you is never random. We'll be moving along soon, but there's a little searching that needs to take place first..Enjoy the breath while you can get it. It's not going to last. **

* * *

"Just because I can't tell you where they are, doesn't mean I can't help you." Sarah protested, as the group was ready to walk out the back door. "It doesn't make sense for you to leave. I know the house is small, but it's definitely bigger than the van. And it has indoor plumbing as a bonus!"

Leonardo was the first to hesitate on the edge of the living room. "What about your parents? Where are they Sarah? This could take awhile."

"They won't be back for a couple of weeks." She answered quickly. "My Dad just retired, they've been planning this trip for a long time. Seriously, where else are you going to go? You're fairly safe here anyway. We'd just have to keep the blinds closed, there's a ton of foot traffic. Everyone and their brother walks their dogs up and down the street at all hours of the day. Now that the sliding door is covered too, I don't see why we'd have a problem with you being seen. Go ahead and talk about it if you need to, I can excuse myself." She offered.

"I don't think that's necessary." Leonardo answered, as he glanced around at the others. "I think she's right guys. We need someplace to stay, and the van is a lot more exposed than this is. Donnie, you need a place to really set-up too. Is there any opposition?"

The turtles were in automatic agreement, and the humans weren't inclined to disagree with them, even if they were still unsure about the situation themselves. In less than a minute, the decision had been silently cast.

Sarah spent the next couple of minutes familiarizing everyone with the house, and ended up taking Donatello and Jenna back to her room.

"You guys can make yourselves comfortable here." She told them. "You can get your laptop plugged in to recharge, and you're welcome to my computer in the meantime. Just don't do anything that would bring the authorities swarming around the house." She said sardonically, and the turtle shook his head at her."

"I know better than_ that _Sarah. I appreciate the offer, but I don't mind using the office either."

"No, this way, Jenna can keep a better eye on you too, make sure you're actually getting the rest you need." She replied.

Jenna's first hint of a smile appeared. "You _do_ know my husband." She remarked.

"I ought to by now." Sarah answered, without actually looking the woman in the eye. "I'll let you know when the food gets here, why don't you just get settled in the meantime? Let me know if you need anything." She finished.

Back out in the living room, it was very quiet. Everyone else had simply been waiting in what was a rather uncomfortable silence. Sarah already felt awkward enough as it was, and the atmosphere was doing nothing to help it.

The sight of Raphael's hand engulfing Karina's made her smile slightly, but she quickly looked away before they could tell that she had noticed.

"So suburbia." Michelangelo spoke up, when he couldn't stand the quiet anymore. "It is always this quiet around here?"

"For the most part." She answered, as she pulled a kitchen chair closer to where he was using the recliner. "This neighborhood is a dream, compared to ourlast neighbors."

"We don't want to get in the way of your business." Luke finally said aloud. "I know this is a lot to deal with."

"I'm _here_, so I have something to do with it, one way or another." She replied, and then sighed deeply. _I just wish that there was something I could actually do for all of you._

* * *

While everyone was eating a few minutes later, Sarah ducked outside the back sliding door onto the darkened porch, and pulled out her cell-phone. She had a couple of quick calls and cancellations to make. Dropping into one of the plastic chairs, she drew her zippered sweatshirt a little tighter against the night air, as she called the first person on her mental list.

The usual playful excitement was already alive in Erin's voice when she picked up the phone on her end. It was normally so infectious that Sarah couldn't keep from smiling, but right now, she was going to have to disappoint her. Erin's happiness was already bubbling over before she could get a real word off.

"I'm almost all ready, I've got everything packed, except for a few more things that have to wait until morning!"

"That's why I'm calling actually," Sarah said, her tone already apologetic. "Something urgent has come up, and we're not going to be able to go tomorrow."

"Aw, I got us a whole bunch of new glow sticks and everything! Wait, are you alright? What's going on?

Sarah hesitated, and then plunged ahead. "Okay, the truth is, I have company. You know the certain _visitors _I've had from New York in the past? Well, they showed up tonight, outside my choir practice no less. They didn't come alone either."

Erin's squeal in the background was almost deafening. "When do I get to come over?"

"Oh no Erin, you _can't_! I'm sorry, it's not a good time for this. I know I promised you I'd try to arrange a meeting the next time they came through, but things are truly messed up. Kat and Greg are missing, that's why they're all here. Stolle has some old connections to Dayton, and my strange sense of humor has created quite a bind for them.

I'm sorry to disappoint you. I'll try to rearrange something with my aunt, and in the meantime, please let your sister and Candy know how sorry I am too."

Sarah hung up the phone a moment later, and when she glanced over at the door, was startled to see Michelangelo standing there.

"Sheesh Mike, how long have you been there? You scared me."

"I thought you might be hungry too, I wasn't trying to eavesdrop." He said a little guiltily.

"What did you hear?"

"We _are _getting in your way." He stated, even as he shoved a plate in her direction.

"It's not the end of the world, and I'm the one who got you into this. The least I can do is have you stay."

The turtle noticed the curious fact that the woman was already more relaxed and at ease, now that it was just the two of them.

"Can I ask you something?" He asked suddenly.

"You just did." Sarah said impishly, and he rolled blue eyes at her.

"You're different than when we came before, like shyer or something. But you seem okay out here right _now_. What's the problem?"

"Sorry, I get this way around people sometimes. I don't do it on purpose, I'm just not the most outgoing person on the face of the earth."

"But you're already comfortable with us." He pointed out. "So it's Luke and the girls, isn't it?"

She hesitated for a beat, and the nodded. "I don't mean to be like this, I just get intimidated by certain people pretty easily."

"But that...that's..."

"Silly, I know it is. I can't help it."

"But you already know them!"

"True, but they don't know _me_ Mike." Sarah answered simply, without elaborating any further.

"Will you come back inside? They sure won't get to know you from out here."

"I have one more phone call to make, and then I will." She agreed.

"What are you canceling?"

"A camping trip. My aunt has property out in the country, and part of it is a cool wooded lot. My friends and I go out there from time to time, and that's where we were going tomorrow." Sarah told him. "But my aunt won't even know she missed us, she and my uncle are out running the auction circuit. Like I said, it's not a big deal."

* * *

When the two came back inside, it was in time to catch Donatello before he returned to work of his own.

"I don't have anything to go on, except for that woman they were supposed to be meeting," The purple-banded turtle was explaining. "I ran a background check through a few different sites, but didn't hit on anything with that name, and this city. If she's a native Daytonian, she's hidden herself well."

"Katherine said she was scared of talking to the FBI." Luke said. "Maybe she was _already_ in hiding."

"My next step was going to involve hacking the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, but Jenna had another novel suggestion for me to try first." Donnie continued.

"What's that?" Raphael asked.

"I told him to google her. Doesn't hurt to try, does it?" Jenna answered the turtle.

* * *

A few minutes after returning to the computer, Donatello's voice rang out from down the hallway. "Hey Sarah, c'mere will you?"

The woman arrived, to find him perusing some search engine results.

"I actually got a couple of hits on her, stuff that has to do with the local news wire. Do you know the Dayton Daily?" He asked her.

"That's pretty much our only major newspaper. What does it say?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. I click on the story headline, and it tells me that it's not available online anymore! Do you remember anything about Shooler Information & Technology in the media recently?"

"The name is _familiar, _but it wasn't all that recent, maybe weeks ago. Something in connection with Wright Patterson, that's all I remember, some press conference."

"They couldn't just let it be easy." Donnie grumbled. "Figures they'd make me hack the site, just to get access to their old archives. Would it kill them to let people read the junk they've already published without any issues?"

"Don't go off on a tangent babe." Jenna said from nearby, sitting on the mattress. "At least you know where to look."

"Yeah, yeah..." He murmured in irritation, as he started typing again.

* * *

Roughly two hours later, he came out to the living room, where everyone else was still awake.

"Alright, here's the deal. This Stone lady hasn't been in Dayton that long, less than six months from what I read. She's heading up some Technology Center, which acquired some major government contracts early this year."

"Hold up," Karina interjected. "If she just go to town, how was she a contact person on Sean Greene's old military profile?"

"I don't have an answer for that." Donnie said truthfully. "But she's all we have to go on. I tried to do some poking around on the Center, but I'm hitting an impossible roadblock."

"What are you talking about Genius?" Raphael said incredulously. "I thought you could go just about anywhere."

"It's pretty difficult to break in somewhere that doesn't have outside access Raph." Donatello told him. "I'm fairly certain that they're running on a closed network, I couldn't begin to make any headway with their main site."

"Then there's no way around it?" Leonardo asked.

"I wouldn't say that exactly, just not from the outside. I need to get access to a terminal within the Company itself."

"Where are they located?" Sarah asked.

"Someplace on Monument? I haven't looked at directions yet."

"That's downtown." She replied. "What would your next move be?"

"I need to get in there physically." He replied.

"You mean like you wanna drive down there, and just walk in?" Leonardo said tightly. "I don't like the idea of you trying this blindly."

"I can't see what's inside before I actually get there Leo. Do you have another suggestion?" Donatello asked.

It wasn't the blue-banded turtle that spoke up first, but Michelangelo.

"Espionage...like Mission Impossible!"

"I don't like the idea of sending anyone _else_ in ahead of us either." Donatello negated. "We don't even know the security situation."

"Maybe it doesn't have to be like that Donnie." Raphael offered. "Someone probably could go in there during the day, like when they're open for business. Get a lay of the place at least. We'd just need an excuse for someone to be there."

"That's easy." Sarah volunteered. "We'd just need to set up a 'delivery' of some kind. My store does it all the time. We usually go through a local courier or something, but in a bind, one of our own people will make deliveries too."

"What kind of delivery Sarah?" Karina had to ask.

"You know, flowers, a gift basket, whatever. If I went with my uniform--"

"If _you_ went? I don't know about that Sarah." Leonardo interrupted.

"Believe it or not, I'm not a bad actress." She said swiftly. "I'd just need a story in advance."

When no one said anything right away, her hands went immediately across her chest. "I can do this!"

"If um...if we were serious about this direction, we'd need to do it tomorrow." Donatello wavered slightly. "That, or we'd be stuck waiting until Monday."

"We don't need to wait, because there's nothing to it." Sarah insisted.

"I'd feel better if one of us went." Jenna said honestly.

"I'm a big girl, okay? My uniform isn't going to fit one of you beautiful ladies. What's the worst that could happen?"

"That's not a question we like to ask." Luke said tiredly. "But this really might be our best option for getting in there on the sly. And I'll jump for it, a lot sooner than I would the guys breaking in sight unseen."


	21. Spy

*** For anyone wondering, this is not a story about me, and it's the only chapter with this much "alone" time. As to why did I choose to even go this direction? I thought it would be an interesting experiment into what happens when the **_**extraordinary**_** touches the ordinary, and how a real person might cope with certain circumstances, they're not prepared for, or suited to deal with.**

* * *

Everyone pretty much slept that night wherever they fell. Forcing themselves to wind down had been hard enough. Sarah had simply curled up in her own regular chair, waking up about thirty times over the course of seven hours - at least, that was what it felt like. When she sat up again, she noticed that the two other turtles in the room were stirring too. Mike was the first to sit up further in the recliner, and cast a look toward the kitchen.

"Do you mind if I..."

"Use whatever you can find in there." She immediately filled in for the turtle, and he rose as quietly as possible, to start rifling through the kitchen.

Raphael was carefully maneuvering on the sectional, trying _not_ to wake up Karina. Sarah noticed him pressing a finger against his temple.

"Does your head still bother you?" She asked softly.

"It comes and goes," He answered. "Most days though, I'm just glad to be here."

Sarah got up silently, to see if she could help Michelangelo, who was just selecting a couple of things from the fridge.

"Bread?" He asked when he saw her.

"Yeah, hang on, it's in a drawer." She told him.

"And where do you keep your pans?"

"It's kind of a mess, the cupboard's not really big enough. Let me grab one for you. What are you thinking here?"

"French Toast is easy, and it won't take me very long."

"Should I wake the others?"

Leonardo and Luke had crashed in the Office, and Donatello and Jenna were still back in the bedroom where Sarah had left them.

"Nah, my brothers will come around when they smell food. They're pretty good about that." He replied, and nodded when the woman held up a pan for him. "Yeah, that'll work."

"There should be a package of bacon in the second drawer."

"Found it already." He answered with a grin.

"I could start cooking it off in the microwave, if you want." She offered.

He tossed her the package, and gave her another glance out of the corner of his eye as he started cracking eggs. "You sure about today? You're the one who admitted to bein' a little shy."

"This is different, I get to play someone other than myself." She said a little mischievously. "It'll be fine, trust me."

"I do," He said quickly. "I just want to make sure that you'll be okay."

* * *

It was after one in the afternoon, by the time that Sarah made her way downtown with Jenna, who'd insisted on at least coming along for the ride. As she pulled the orange Cavalier onto the property of the Technology Center, Jenna took note of the lone guards' booth.

"Looks like there's only one source of security on the outside."Jenna said to herself more or less, as Sarah uncranked the window to retrieve a visitor's pass from the man.

When she'd found somewhere to park, Jenna reached for her arm to get her attention.

"Alright, _call_ me if you have any problems. I can be in there really quickly."

"What do you think is going to happen?" Sarah asked, as she reached for the basket in the back seat.

"Expect anything Sarah."

* * *

Since she already had a visitor pass in hand, Sarah intentionally bypassed the front desk without asking for help, and headed for the closest bank of elevators. The first one she approached required key card access, and it was obvious that she wouldn't be able to use it. The one across from it just had a normal button , so she moved toward it instead. A couple more people came to wait with her while the elevator was on it's way. Once inside, she held back from hitting a floor level herself, waiting to see what the others would select.

She made eye contact with the woman closest to her, and when the stranger smiled easily, went ahead with her question.

"I'm bringing a delivery to Lilah Stone - can you tell me what floor she's on?"

"Her office is on the Fourth," The woman replied. "You work for Dorothy Lane Market? I hope there aren't any Killer Brownies in that basket. I might have to stop the elevator myself."

Sarah only chuckled in return. "You'll have to fight her for them."

* * *

Sarah wandered around the fourth floor slowly, taking her time like Donatello had told her she would have to. He'd outfitted her name tag with a tiny lens from his own kit in the van, so she could take real footage from inside. She walked around for as long as she felt she could without attracting unnecessary attention, before heading down toward the office she'd been directed toward.

Sarah met a woman who was obviously her assistant, sitting outside a desk by the private office.

"Good afternoon - I have a delivery for Lilah Stone?" She said officially to the woman.

"Do I need to sign anything?" The woman asked a little boredly.

"No Ma'am, I can just leave it here with you." Sarah replied, and was on her way seconds later.

When she got back to the elevators, she nearly ran directly into a man who'd dropped an entire file folder. He was struggling to keep his glasses up on his nose, as he grabbed for papers that were scattered both inside and outside of the elevator. Sarah moved to help, stepping through the doors to retrieve a few herself.

The man smiled sheepishly. "I'm in a huge hurry. Thanks."

As he dashed away, Sarah walked the rest of the way through the elevator doors she'd been blocking. As the doors closed behind her, she suddenly realized she was in the _wrong_ elevator. There were additional buttons that she knew nothing about, and it appeared once again that a key card was required to even go anywhere.

As she was about to hit the button to at least try and re-open the doors, the elevator started moving, as if on it's own accord. She held her breath slightly as it traveled down, past the Lobby floor she'd entered on to begin with. When the doors opened on a level beneath it, two individuals were waiting on the other side, as if they'd just called for it.

They were both surprised to see _her _there, but the blond woman recovered quickly.

"What are you doing in here?" She demanded at once. "This is private access."

"I'm sorry, it was an accident." Sarah squeaked. "I didn't know what I was doing."

She searched the stranger's face for an instant, immediately recognizing her from the Press Conference.

"You're going back where you came from." Lilah stated firmly. "Isaac, c'mon."

Sarah ducked into the corner of the elevator, as far away from the two of them as she could possibly get. She stared almost unabashedly at the man, until he jerked around to face her. She fought down the shudder coursing through her body, swiftly looking away from him.

_Oh my God. Oh my God!_

She couldn't fight the trembling off completely, as the ride up one floor seemed to take about ten times longer than it should have. It stopped at the Lobby, and Lilah stepped off first, motioning severely for Sarah to follow her. She couldn't get off of the elevator (or away from Stolle) fast enough. Lilah walked briskly to the desk, and summoned security to escort Sarah back outside.

The escort wasn't really necessary, she would have willingly run from the building screaming, if she hadn't been afraid of attracting further attention. Jenna sat up in the passenger seat, staring at Sarah questioningly as she approached the car with a guard. The woman struggled to even unlatch her driver's side door, her eyes still as big as saucers as she ducked inside the car.

"What happened?" Jenna demanded.

Sarah didn't say anything, a soft cry escaping her as she lowered her forehead against the steering wheel. Tears of pent-up emotion and fear that had been boiling just under the surface, were now released at once.

"Sarah?" Jenna said anxiously. "What _happened_?"

"They...they're together." She answered shakily. "Stolle and that woman, they're both in there."

* * *

Lilah was still steaming inwardly as she returned to the elevator, where Isaac was waiting.

"Is it that hard to get good help?" She demanded. "Someone had to have let her in."

Isaac was obviously less concerned about it. "She's gone now, isn't she?"

"But what was she _doing_?"

"She said it was an accident. C'mon Lilah, I've seen my share of operatives, and that girl was anything but professional."

"No, clearly not. But I don't think she was entirely honest about why she was here either." Lilah replied. "No matter. I've done everything I came here for today, and we should probably get back out of the city."

Isaac smiled. "Yes, it would be nice to get back to our Agents."

"I think we ought be keeping a closer eye with our secondary teams." Lilah mentioned.

"This isn't like you darling," Isaac chuckled. "What's got you so worried?"

"You're the one who told me not to underestimate them." She reminded him.

He couldn't help laughing again. "This is a reversal, isn't it? Stop worrying. Everything is under control."

Lilah met his gaze steadily. "Maybe _you_ should be a little more worried for a change. They've gotten the drop on you twice. I don't want to go through a repeat of past history."


	22. Inside

"I'm sorry.", were the first words out of Sarah's mouth back at the house. "I never expected to come face to face with that man."

"I don't think anyone expected that." Leonardo said softly. "We wouldn't have let you go."

Donatello hadn't said anything right away, but the wheels were obviously turning on the inside. "If it's really a functioning business, there's no way they're holding them there. Too many variables, other people that could find them. But I bet her office holds some key as to where they actually are. We need to get in there, and I'm voting _tonight_."

* * *

It was just before 9pm, when all four turtles arrived in the Battle Shell outside of the Technology Center.

"Tell me again why Mike is going with you?" Raphael complained to Donatello.

"'Cause I asked first." Michelangelo said with a reminiscent grin.

"You and Leo can stay put, can't you?" Donatello said pointedly. "We need you to keep an eye out."

"I thought that's what the_ humans _were hanging around for." Raphael said sarcastically. "Why'd we even bring them?"

"We didn't actually." Leonardo said dryly. "You didn't really think they'd sit happily at home, with all of us out here did you?"

"We could always try and tell them what to do." The red-banded turtle said fiercely.

"They're serving a purpose." Donnie said evenly. "You're both watching different directions. We'll be back, alright? I'll be as quick as I can."

* * *

Donatello and Michelangelo didn't have a hard time stealing onto the property unseen. They silently approached the guard booth, and as Donnie readied an epi-pen, he nodded at his younger brother to knock on the door. They both darted into shadows as the man came out, puzzled to find no one there. He took a couple of steps with his flashlight, sweeping it over the surrounding area. The guard spent approximately two minutes searching around the Booth, before turning to go inside.

The moment his back was facing them, the purple-banded turtle moved like lightning, smoothly injecting the epi-pen into the man's shoulder. He stayed just out of the human's line of sight, and only had to wait seconds for him to pass out. Donatello caught the human before he could hit the ground, and carefully lowered him to the earth himself.

"Tie him up Mikey. We won't leave him here all night - just until we've got what we came for."

"Sorry dude." Michelangelo apologized to the unconscious man, as he zip-tied his hands and feet together.

"I'll be back." Donatello told him, and went into the booth himself.

He sat down by the computer terminal, and typed a rapid inquiry. "Yes..." He muttered aloud to himself. "This will work from here, I'm sure of it."

Donatello scanned the operating security systems in place, until he located the network of cameras. With a few keystrokes, he shut down the surveillance monitors completely, and then searched out the motion sensors that would set off alarms if they tried to get inside. In a span of about ten minutes, he'd completed what he needed to, and glanced back out of the booth.

"Hey Mike, does he have a key card on him?"

The orange-banded turtle only had to frisk him for a couple of seconds. "Got it Donnie." He verified.

"Perfect." Donatello grinned. "Then we're ready. Let me get him inside here, and we can move into the building itself."

* * *

Using the security guard's access card, they got into the Center without issue.

"Okay...fourth floor." Donnie said quietly out of habit, automatically keeping his voice down.

They took an elevator upstairs, and picked their way through the cubicles, until they found the office that they were searching for. When it was clear the guard's key card wouldn't open Lilah's private quarters, Donatello set to taking off the metal plate so that he could override the sensors physically.

Mike held the flashlight steady while he worked, until Donnie had the door open a couple of minutes later.

"Okay, do me a favor. Leave the flashlight here, and keep watch for me." Donatello requested of him.

"Will do bro." Michelangelo agreed, and left Donatello as the turtle was booting up Lilah's computer.

While waiting for the system to log-in, he dug into his backpack to retrieve his own needed materials. The first thing he withdrew was his own version of a souped up flash drive, which he hooked into one of the ports on the front of the CPU tower. He flexed both hands in front of him, and typed in a command on Lilah's desktop to start copying from the hard drive.

While it was scanning, he pulled out his laptop with another cable, and began the task of establishing a link between the two computers. His gut told him that there _was_ an outside access point somewhere, that Stolle was likely using. He needed to find it, and it was probably going to take a few minutes. As he dropped his cell phone on top of the desk, he failed to notice that it suddenly had no signal.

* * *

"Isaac, where has Andrews gotten to?" Lilah asked of the tech guru, who was only now returning to the Observation room.

"What are you talking about?"

"He's either not at his post, or he's not answering the phone. I can't tell for certain, there's something obstructing the camera feed."

The man's eyes instantly narrowed. "What's going on with the video?"

"This is _your_ area of specialty Isaac, you tell me."

The man sat down with a huff, and typed in a few cursory commands. "They've been turned off." He stated flatly. "_Unbelievable_. Your other men are close by, aren't they?"

"They're still set up in that vacant building, across the street. Is it time to call them in? Are you sure that it's them?"

"Give me a moment." The man replied, as he performed the necessary override on his end to turn the cameras back on.

He began shifting rapidly through available angles, stopping with a jerk on a frame that detected motion. He zoomed in on the sight of what was clearly one of the turtles standing in the hall, nearby the elevators.

"Gotcha." He said darkly. "Have a look Lilah, that's one of them in the flesh."

"We need to get the men in there!"

"Take it easy, we don't want to spook them. We'll have to check the perimeter first, or we'll risk causing them to scatter."

* * *

One phone call to Lewis had the man leading the main team checking things out with his binoculars from across the street,

"It seems quiet on the outside." One of the men told Lewis, as he was scanning the landscape. "What are we waiting for? If they're in there, we need to get moving."

"Shut up." Lewis said shortly, just as he laid eyes on a familiar vehicle. "I _know_ that van."

He made a swift adjustment on the binoculars, switching to a heat imaging. "They're not all inside," He announced. "There are at least two in their vehicle."

With that, he snatched his phone to call Stolle back. "Sir, I have sight of their van. There are definitely a couple waiting outside."

"You're going to have to proceed carefully." Isaac said fiercely. "We can't allow them to get warning off to the others." Stolle looked at Lilah for an instant. "We need to get them down without incident."

"Wait. They still have that Agent's vehicle, don't they?" Lilah asked suddenly, as something occurred to her.

"Hang on." Isaac told her. "Lewis, the Jeep, you kept it close by didn't you?"

"Yes sir, we switched out the plates of course."

"Do you still have the old ones? Lilah has an idea, and I think I know where she's going with it." Stolle told him.

"They're going to need a body double." Lilah spoke up. "And they're going to have to make it convincing, if they hope to be followed."

Isaac nodded at her. "Alright Lewis, it's absolutely imperative that you use discretion here. This is of utmost importance, I don't want any of them to escape this time. Watch the setting on the energy rifle, I don't want them to be seriously injured either. You've got to factor in their shells though, I'm fairly certain that it will take away from the impact of the stun."

After hanging up the phone, he settled back in his chair for a moment. "We don't have many of those weapons to go around, only enough for one man on each team to carry one. They'd better not screw this up, or I'll have someone's head."


	23. Lured

*** Not going to get graphic, I promise you. Just stay with me. **

* * *

Katherine felt so nauseous, it seemed like she was going to get sick at any moment. When she tried to sit up, the room seemed to be moving before he very eyes. Vaguely, she recalled the drink she'd downed only half an hour before. She would have smacked herself good, if she didn't feel that she'd certainly miss at this point.

It was clear she'd been drugged with _something_, but it didn't make any sense to what rational mind she had left. It wasn't even enough to knock her out, though the entire room and her own thoughts were growing increasingly fuzzier. She heard the sound of someone coming, but didn't have the energy to even raise her head off the floor now. The door to her cell was opened, and a shadow fell across her thin frame.

"Good evening Katherine." Williams said to her, with an entirely new tone of voice.

He pushed the woman down easily as she attempted to rise, smoothing a large hand across her cheek.

"I've gone without for a long time. The least you could is make some kind of amends for the time you cost me." He told her, with what was a frighteningly hungry smile.

"Don't _touch_ me."She replied, as strongly as she was able.

"No sense in playing hard to get." He hissed in her direction. "I'm going to get what I want, whether you like it or not."

"No!"

"Get OFF of her!" Greg's voice rang out from across the way.

"It's not your business Heffernan." Williams replied coolly. "Just because you're not man enough to tap her, doesn't mean I'm not." He smirked, and leveled the full force of his weight against the woman.

His hands were roving over her body, and there was nothing she could do to stop him.

"Get off!" She insisted again, as she struggled unsuccessfully underneath the man.

His lips intentionally covered hers, and she bit down as hard she could. With a snarl of anger, he backhanded the woman soundly across the face.

"You're mine." He said directly into her ear. "And the more you fight it, the longer it will take."

Tears of frustration stung her eyes, as she continued trying to claw her way out from under him. A ruthless blow to her chest knocked the wind out of her, and he took the opportunity while she was slightly stunned to kiss her again, relishing in her anguish. Greg's shouting in the background wasn't even distracting him now.

He had just started pawing at the woman's clothes again, when the main door to the room burst open.

"Fun time's over Williams!" Isaac barked fiercely. "We've gotta go! Now get your tail out here, we're leaving in five!"

Stolle turned on heel and left the room, as Williams was rising with disappointment.

But then he smiled again. "Don't worry sweetheart, I'll be back." He assured her.

As he passed out of the cell, he cast a chuckle in Greg's direction. The Agent was so infuriated at this point that he was literally shaking with anger.

"You're a dead man Williams! A DEAD MAN!"

"I'll be back for you too Heffernan." The man grinned savagely. "If I had the time, I'd teach you proper right now. But you're _both_ just going to have to wait. See you soon."

* * *

Raphael was resting his chin in one hand, feeling absolutely bored out of his mind. He'd only just hung up the phone from talking to Karina, who was also waiting nearby, along with Luke and Jenna in Sarah's Cavalier. Bringing their "host" along had been a necessity, since no one from the group actually knew how to drive her stick shift. If they wanted to come along at all, it required Sarah driving for them. They were presently parked on the opposite side of the building from them, and not seeing anything more of note than he and Leo had.

Leonardo couldn't help feeling antsy either. "It's sure taking long enough." He mumbled aloud.

"Tell me about it." Raphael muttered in return. "I _hate_ waiting."

"It'll be over soon." Leonardo reasoned. "Donnie won't take longer than he needs."

Raphael started to say something else, but was instead drawn by a curious sight in his driver's side mirror. A familiar dark green Jeep, traveling toward them. Leonardo saw him stiffen considerably, and sat up further himself.

"What is it Raph? What do you see?"

"Fearless, I swear that looks just like Heff's Jeep. Hold up for a second, I think it's gonna pass us."

They both watched sharp-eyed as it drove on, straining to catch sight of the license plate. It was familiar too.

"Shell." The red-banded turtle immediately exclaimed. "Something's going on here Leo."

Leonardo hesitated from saying anything, as they saw the Jeep turn onto the property of the Technology Center.

"Raph, don't move, okay? I'm gonna call Donnie." He urged him, hitting his younger brother's speed-dial.

Meanwhile, the Jeep had stopped under the cover of darkness, so that only the outline of figures seemed to stand out as they emerged from the vehicle.

Leonardo dropped his hand that was holding the phone after a moment. "Darn it, he _can't_ actually have his phone turned off!"

Raphael had never taken his eyes off the men or the Jeep, now intensely aware of another figure, who was being shoved around herded like he was a head of cattle.

"Fearless, we can't sit here. What if that's--"

"Hold on." Leonardo commanded him, as he tried Donatello's phone a third time.

"Our friend could be out there this second, and you wanna stay here? Have fun Leo, I'm done holding on. You wait here if you want." Raphael said sarcastically, as he opened the driver's side door.

"_No_." Leonardo said sharply. "We're not separating."

"They're already moving Leo, we need to get after them!"

"Let me at least try and reach Luke."

"And tell 'im what? That we're abandoning our post to chase shadows? We don't need them panicking Fearless! Save the call for when we _have_ something, okay?"

Both turtles climbed out of the van now, melding their own forms into the darkness seamlessly, so they would have nearly been invisible to the naked eye. They silently made their way into the parking lot. Their weapons weren't drawn, but their hands rested precariously on the hilts, ready for a fight at any given moment.

They followed the path the shadows had taken into deeper darkness, both straining to listen for the sounds around them. They'd lost sight of them when they'd gone around the corner of the building, and were now approaching that spot themselves. Both turtles had only just came around the side, when a streak of light interrupted the darkness.

Raphael leaped to the side in astonishment, sai instantly in his hands. "_What _the shell--"

It took him an instant to realize that his brother wasn't beside him anymore, but was in fact motionless on the pavement. With a growl the red-banded turtle positioned himself over Leonardo, sai crossed in front of his chest. "Ya'll are messing with the _wrong _guy."

He dodged another blast from the odd weapon, and leaped straight off the ground in the direction of the one doing the firing. Raphael was on top of the gunman faster than he could blink, or even get another shot off. One of his sai met the instrument panel, crashing through it with fierce vengeance. Then he cast both man and useless weapon aside, and met two more of the figures with powerful thrusts to the head and chest.

_Three guys? I know there were more of them, but I can't go hunting until I know Leo's okay!_

He dashed back to his brother's side, who was clearly unconscious. What looked very much like sparks of electricity were still coursing over his plastron.

"Fearless? Leo, do you hear me? Aw shell, this _can't_ be good!"

Unwittingly he reached for his brother's wrist to check for a pulse, completely unprepared to be overwhelmed by electrical transfer _himself_. The charge wasn't enough to paralyze him, but it did manage to level the turtle to his knees, and left him trembling in pain.

In that moment, the others were on top of him. The turtle got off two decent hits, before something crashed hard into his shell like a pile-driver, and followed up with a sharp crack over his skull. It was all over after that, as consciousness swam away from him.


	24. Sacrifice

Donatello had finished synching his own computer with Lilah's desktop only minutes before, and immediately replaced the laptop into his bag. Finding the uplink that networked her computer to another outside source had been a real trick, but it was done now. He'd run into a glitch copying her hard drive, and had to re-start the whole process with another flash-drive. Now he was just waiting on his equipment to finish compressing volumes of information, glancing at the clock again while he waited for it to finish initializing.

Michelangelo had been keeping a quiet vigil out in the hall, but the silence was suddenly broken by the soft tone that indicated the elevator was running. Instant horror struck him, as he ducked his head back into cubicle world. "Donnie!" He yelled, utterly unconcerned about keeping his _own_ voice down. "We're gonna have company!"

The purple-banded turtle glanced out of the office a little frantically. "I need sixty seconds!"

"Well hang on Don, lemme ask them if they'll _wait_!" Mike hollered back.

"Just get out of sight! I'm almost there!" Donatello called briskly.

Michelangelo stole back inside of the room of darkened cubicles, running in the direction of Lilah's office as the elevator was coming to a stop out in the hallway.

Donatello's hand was poised impatiently over the flash-drive. "Stop initializing! Finish,_ finish_!" He commanded the inanimate object.

"They're inside Donnie." Michelangelo whispered as loudly as he dared through the door.

Three more seconds, and the download was complete. Donnie yanked the device out of the CPU, stuffed it into his backpack, and darted to join Mike outside the office door. They could tell the men were trying to be quiet, but the turtles were utterly aware of their presence getting closer.

"There's another set of elevators this way. C'mon." Donatello barely breathed aloud.

They ducked silently between cubicles, inching their way out the other end of the large room. They had to pause for seconds at a time, to be certain no one had caught sight of them or heard anything, as they traveled several feet through the darkness. They hesitated around the corner from the second bank of elevators, in time to hear the chime of another arriving.

"Shell." Donatello whispered, as they both flattened against the wall. "They're trying to box us in."

The purple-banded turtle glanced down at his phone suddenly, surprised to see that he had missed calls. The phone had never even rung, and it wasn't registering any bars. "Mike, is your phone working? Something's wrong with mine."

The orange-masked turtle glanced at his own, and shrugged. "It seems okay. Do you want me to--"

"Hold on a second." Donnie ordered him, his hand sifting through his backpack for two objects. He gave Michelangelo a serious look, and pressed something firmly into his hand after taking an instant to arm it. "No explosives, just smoke. When I set off mine, don't hesitate - just send yours' the other way, alright?"

Mike barely had time to nod, tensing as four men piled off the elevator. The moment that their feet hit the floor of the hallway, Donatello lobbed his bomb directly at them, and the younger turtle instantly reacted by sending his behind them. In the midst of sudden chaos, Donnie yanked his brother by the arm, pulling him in the direction of the elevators they could no longer see with physical eyes. Donatello had to trust his own memory of the number of needed paces in addition to his instincts, to get them where they needed to go.

As the purple-banded turtle's hand flailed for the button to get the doors open, Mike's fist made contact with someone who'd stumbled in too closer. Donatello found the button a second later, and both turtles darted inside of the chamber. Donnie whirled around, lashing out two powerful strikes at a couple others with his bo, who were dangerously close to stopping the doors from closing again.

As he dispatched them, Mike's hand pounded the button to close the doors, and Donnie hurriedly yanked his bo back inside to keep from setting off the sensors.

"What the shell!" Michelangelo exclaimed, the moment they were moving. "What happened to the guys keeping _watch_?"

"I don't know Mikey, try calling them!"

Through slightly struggling reception, he first tried to reach Leonardo, and then Raphael. "I've got nothing Donnie!"

"Then try Luke, see if they've seen or heard anything! Maybe Leo and Raph are already engaged!"

Michelangelo pressed another speed-dial, and was a little relieved to hear Luke's voice on the other end, but not for long.

"Doc, we're going to pieces in here! Donnie and I had serious company, we're trying to get away as I speak! Have you heard from Leo or Raph? I couldn't raise them!"

"Are you kidding right now? Everything has been dead as a doornail out here." The man replied.

"Does it SOUND like I'm kidding?" The turtle demanded in a rare fit of anger. "Have you talked to them, or not?"

"No, well, yes, Karina talked to Raph about half an hour ago!"

"But nothing since?" Mike pressed.

"No Mike! Should we be looking for them, or--"

"NO!" The turtle stated firmly. "Don't get out of the car, don't try _anything_! Don and I are on our way out, but we'll probably be coming from a different direction!"

The elevator stopped on the Lobby floor, and Donatello snapped the fire button, to shut the chamber down completely. Then he motioned for Mike to follow, as the turtle still had Luke on the phone.

"We'll meet you, okay?" Luke persisted. "We'll stay in the car, just tell us where to go!"

"Donnie, where are we?" Mike asked immediately.

"We'll be coming out of the southwest!"

"Southwest Doc, that's the best I can tell you. I'm hanging up - if you see any of these bad guys, take off! Just get yourselves completely out of there!"

"You know we're not going to do that Mikey!"

"You heard what I said!" The turtle barked, and clapped the phone shut, as they were running up toward a secure door to the outside.

Donatello tried using the guard's key card, but received a flash of red, instead of the desired green light.

"Darn it, they've shut us down!" He proclaimed angrily, reaching for his screw-driver. "I'll have to hot-wire it."

"Hurry Donnie!" Michelangelo urged, keeping a nervous eye on the hallway.

They would be followed quickly, both turtles knew it. Donatello's nimble fingers were feeling around the wiring as quickly as he could. Sweat had just started to appear, when he located the one that he needed. With a precise cut, he managed to override the security lock, and shoved the door open.

Around the same moment, pounding feet were assailing their ears. Donatello pushed Mike out the door ahead of him, and was about to turn back to finish off the wiring so that the men wouldn't be able to immediately follow. But before he could even turn back around in the doorframe, he was struck by something that he never saw coming.

Michelangelo saw the flash, but had absolutely no idea what was happening as Donatello went down hard on his plastron, just outside the door. "DONNIE!"

The younger turtle bent over his brother, frightened by the sight of energy surging over the surface of his skin.

A strangled gasp escaped the still conscious turtle. "The door!" He forced out. "Get the door!"

Mike jolted to his feet, staring at the partially mutilated keypad like it would bite him. "What do I do?"

"Rip the wiring, all of it!"

The orange-banded turtle grabbed several different colored pieces at once, yanking hard, then ducked to the floor to avoid another flash. He dove out of the door and pulled it closed firmly behind him. The ruined wiring would hold it for the time being, but there was nothing to stop the men from simply finding another way out.

Michelangelo returned to his brother, and would have reached for him if Donatello hadn't spoken up.

"D-don't touch me!" He wavered. "It feels _live_!"

"What is it Donnie? Are you hurt?"

"Some kinda stun weapon Mike, I can't move. Do you think you can cut the straps on my backpack, without actually touching my skin?"

Michelangelo didn't ask any questions, he quickly drew the knife from his side, and started the careful work of freeing the bag from his shell.

"Do you need something from in here?" He asked him.

"No Mike, I _need_ you to run, right now!"

"Run? You expect me to leave you? I won't do it!"

"I can't do anything Mikey, I'm stuck!" The turtle exclaimed. "You've got to go, get this stuff back to Luke and the girls. Those men will find a way around, they'll catch up before you know it! You need to go while you still can!"

"I'm not leaving you!" He repeated.

"Even if you_ weren't _shocked, you can't handle my weight Mikey!"

"Yes I can!" He insisted.

"No you can't, and you know it!" Donatello shot back, as strongly as he was able. "I need you to do it, or this was all for nothing! You have a responsibility to Kat and Greg!"

"But they're gonna get _you_!"

"They'll get _both_ of us if you don't run for it! Please Mike, you have to at least try! Call April, she should be able to figure out some of the stuff I stole."

"Donnie--"

"GO!"

Michelangelo hesitated on the ground for a couple of seconds longer, until he saw the beams of flashlights on the grounds. He clutched his brother's backpack firmly to his chest, and gave him another backward glance.

"I'll find you, if it's the last thing I do!" He said brokenly.

"Run!" His older brother ordered one last time, and Mike darted to his feet with intense difficultly, and forced himself to flee in the direction of the fence, and where the Cavalier was hopefully nearby.


	25. Escaping

"What are we doing?" Sarah was completely confused as to what was actually going on, and she wasn't the only one.

"Can you just get you car further up on the side of the building?" Luke suggested. "I've got a really bad feeling about _all _of this. Kari, you still haven't reached Leo or Raph?"

"No, and I don't like it either! Shouldn't we be looking for them?" The woman replied.

"Mike said to stay in the car." Luke said insistently. "I think we should do what he said, at least until we figure out what--"

"Someone's coming!" Jenna interjected from the front passenger seat. "It's definitely one of the guys!" She quickly turned to glance at Sarah. "Flip your lights for him, let him know you're here!"

As the entire carload turned to peer out the windshield, it was suddenly apparent that the turtle was being pursued. The beams of flashlights and shadowy forms were sprinting across the property, gaining on the turtle who didn't seem to be moving as fast as he should have been.

"Sarah, get closer!" Luke ordered. "Jenna, get back here with us, hurry up!"

The young woman squirmed her way over the seat into the back of the Cavalier, wedging her way in-between Luke and Karina.

The turtle had just dropped something over the fence, on top of a trash can on the other side, and was now struggling his own way up the chain link. As he forced his way over the top, he couldn't maintain his shaky balance. He hit the pavement hard on the other side, clutching his chest painfully as he gasped for air. But he didn't have time to even think about pain.

Michelangelo dragged himself upright, yanking Donatello's backpack up in his arms again. With slightly trembling fingers he retrieved what was actually a flash grenade, and took an instant to arm the mechanism. He hurled it over the fence, in the direction of the oncoming men. The turtle turned away from the flash, stumbled forward toward the waiting Cavalier.

Sarah stretched over to unlock the passenger door, as Michelangelo hurried around the front of the car. As he scrambled inside, the sight of _more _men running out of the building sent terror through the car like an electric current.

"We have to move Sarah, now!" Luke ordered, as he pressed hard against the driver's seat.

"Hold on - Mike, your door's not shut! It's not shut!" She anxiously told the turtle.

He didn't speak a single word, as he yanked the door shut a second time. Sarah was so distracted by what looked like tears in his blue eyes, that her foot accidentally slipped off of the clutch entirely, and the vehicle immediately failed with a giant lurch.

"What's wrong, what happened?" Karina demanded from the back.

"Nothing, it _stalled_, I popped the clutch!" She answered all in one breath, frantically ramming her foot against the pedal as she turned the key again.

"_Sarah_!" Jenna's own voice was taking on a high pitched quality.

The car engine roared back to life, as another vehicle screeched around the corner down the block from them. It only took Luke one glance over his shoulder to know that they were in big trouble.

"GO!" He shouted, simultaneously pounding the back of her seat. "Get us out of here!"

The woman obeyed, rapidly shifting out of first directly into second gear. Her heart was _already _racing as she chanced a glance into her rear-view mirror, after shifting into third.

"Don't look!" Luke commanded her. "Eyes forward, and don't let us stall again! Keep your foot on the gas!"

She forced herself to listen to him, but was finding it hard to maintain the speed on the narrow city street. She felt more out of control and frightened than she ever had in her whole life.

"They're gaining on us Sarah, you _have_ to go faster!" Jenna urged her.

She didn't feel that it was an appropriate time to mention that she was already traveling much faster than she really felt comfortable going. But one glance over at Michelangelo in the passenger seat beside her suddenly renewed her resolve. With a determined breath, she downshifted out of fifth gear, to give her a better grip on acceleration.

The two lane road they were on was about to be reduced to one lane because of construction, and they were starting to hit the Friday night traffic that she'd been dreading now. She fought the urge to scream as they approached the back of a line of about five cars, waiting at a red traffic light.

"Go around them, use the turn lane!" Luke told her quickly.

"But the light--"

"Move it now!" Was his only response.

She swiftly veered into the empty turn lane, her breathing quickening as they approached the intersection. Luke was rapidly looking both directions.

"Floor it! You've got time to make it, but you have to go now!" He told her.

Without giving herself time to think about it, the woman made the turn, grimacing at the sight of the oncoming vehicles she was narrowly avoiding.

"Keep focused Sarah! Now can Perry Street get us back to the highway?" Luke asked her.

"No, we'd have to cut over to Second! It's got the closest ramp to 75!"

"Get us over there!" Karina exclaimed. "I still see the SUV, it's gaining on us again!"

"We're gonna make her more nervous if we keep saying that!" Jenna proclaimed.

"Somebody has to!" The woman shot back.

"Ladies, not now!" Luke said sharply, his own eyes then widening at the back-up of traffic ahead of them. "We've got to get around this, use the center lane Sarah!"

She knew better than to try and argue with him by now. She cut into the dividing lane, her breath catching completely when she saw a disabled vehicle directly in their path. She slammed both the brakes and the clutch at the same time, but didn't remotely feel like she had enough room to stop. An unbidden cry escaped her, as Michelangelo tore the steering wheel out of her grip, and maneuvered them into the temporarily clear lane on the wrong side of the road. The moment they were past the broken-down car, he yanked the steering wheel to get them back into the center lane.

"Take the wheel!" He said firmly to the barely breathing woman.

She gulped severely as she punched the gas again. _We're gonna die, _she thought desperately, _This is it, I'm about to kill us all!_

"Second Street!" Luke's shout brought her back slightly, to what was coming up directly in front of her.

But she was in the center, and she _needed_ the far right lane.

"Hold on!" Sarah yelled, as she accelerated yet again to get past the cars in the adjacent lanes, and veered dangerously fast towards Second Street.

The car immediately started to skid, but she was prepared for it. She took her foot completely off the gas, firmly gripping the clutch with her left. Without even having to make serious correction, she'd recovered from the near disaster in seconds. Despite the circumstances, she almost smiled at Mike's stunned expression.

"You have to love a stick." She told him with complete seriousness, and then, "Okay...okay, there's the overpass. The on-ramp is just on the other side!"

They were running into traffic again, and there was no way to get around it this time. The lane she was already in would force her to take the northbound ramp, which would serve as a major risk in itself. Her knuckles were suddenly gripping the steering wheel harder as she raced up the ramp, her fear becoming more prevalent than before.

"What's wrong?" Mike asked ironically.

"Nothing, it's just, this is the most dangerous section of 75 around here!" She explained. "It's heavily traveled, and everybody wants to go 90 miles an hour!"

"Then we'll fit right in!" Luke barked in return. "It's okay Sarah, we're here to help you. I'll tell you when you've got space to maneuver, but you have to react right away, no hesitating!"

"I need to get all the way to the left! Are they still behind us?" She hated to ask.

"Yes." Jenna replied at once. "Don't think about it, just keep going."

"God knows I'm trying!" Sarah said nervously. Her heart was beating so hard, it felt like it was about to leave her chest. _Is this what it feels like I have a heart attack? Am I dying right here?_

With Luke's direction, she worked her way to the inside lane, carefully avoiding the last one which she knew would be disappearing in a matter of moments. She was glad that the earlier rain had stopped, but the roadways were still slick underneath her tires, a fact that was doing nothing to help the desperate situation.

Two yellow flashing lights in the distance made her swallow very hard, and instantly throw in the clutch.

"What are you doing?" Luke demanded. "We can't slow down!"

"I _have_ to! If I try to speed through Malfunction Junction, I could kill all of us!"

"Through_ what_?" Jenna said in complete confusion.

"The mega curve, with the flashing lights? I have to slow down for this!"

Even with the additional braking, she felt dangerously close to losing it as she entered the bend. But the Cavalier maintained the lane they were in, and they were safely going straight again a few seconds later. Sarah was just starting to seriously accelerate again, when a horrific sound behind her made the woman jerk in the driver's seat.

All her passengers in the back were already turned around looking, so that Sarah couldn't resist glancing in her rear-view either. All she immediately had the chance to see were flames, before Michelangelo grabbed her shoulder.

"Watch the road." He told her.

"What just happened, did anyone see?" Sarah demanded of the other three.

"Our tail, it flipped over!" Karina answered after a second of hesitation. "It hit the guard rail, must have rolled at least three times!"


	26. Hiding

They came, just like Donatello knew they would. He could hear the men approaching on foot, but couldn't begin to move, let alone _defend_ himself.

"Gloves." He heard one of them bark to the others. "Get them on, and let's get him loaded."

Two pairs of arms pulled him off the ground by his shoulders a few seconds later, and the speaker obviously hadn't been expecting to see the turtle's brown eyes staring back at him. The man reacted by instantly discharging his weapon into his chest.

The painful surge was mercifully brief to his conscious mind, as the world around him passed quickly out of all knowledge.

Lewis had seen the whole thing, as he and his own team dashed back around the building from inside.

"Did you just shoot him _again_?" He demanded fiercely. "He was already down Simms, you could have caused worse damage!"

Lewis yanked the rifle out of his grasp, even as he heard a hail on his radio. He shook his head in disgust at the man in front of him, and depressed the button to talk.

"Go ahead." He paused to listen to the earpiece, and then continued. "You've definitely got the two contained?...Well make sure...No, you let them do the chasing of the other, you stay where you are, and don't let anything happen with them!" The man finished, and then snapped his fingers sharply at the two of the men on the opposing team that already had gloves on.

"Get him back on his shell." He ordered, and then dropped to the pavement beside him. Lewis cast another furious glance at Simms, as he started searching for a heart-beat with his own gloved hand. "This turtle had better be alright, for your sake."

The rhythm skipped slightly under his hand, as if it may have been briefly interrupted. But as he waited a few seconds tensely, it seemed to be setting into a normal pattern. "You're lucky." Lewis spat angrily. "This one is the most valuable of the four. I don't think you're suited to carry one of those rifles Simms, or to lead a team for that matter. Somehow, I don't think Stolle is going to be very pleased with you."

* * *

Sarah was shaking too hard to keep driving, now that the initial adrenaline had worn off. All that was left was the gnawing fear of who could possibly have been killed or injured back there, in the course of the stupid car chase.

"I have to pull over." She announced to her carload.

"Sarah, I'm really not sure if we should." Luke countered.

"I HAVE to pull over!" She stated more insistently.

The woman pulled off on the next exit, and drove around the corner from the ramp. She turned directly into the darkness of a seedy motel parking lot, that looked like it had been closed for months. Without a word, she ducked out of the driver's side door, and slammed it shut behind her.

"Okay." Luke said with a swallow. "What just happened back there Mike?"

The orange-banded turtle said nothing, and wouldn't turn to look at the humans.

"Mike, where's Donatello?" Jenna persisted. "What happened with him? Did he find the others?"

"No." He answered shortly.

"You have to talk to us." Karina urged the turtle. "Please, tell us what's going on!"

"I _can't_, Leo and Raph, I don't know where they are, or what happened to them. We got ambushed inside that building, and never heard a thing out of them, though it looked like one of 'em at least tried to call Donnie. His phone never rang. They must have gotten to them first." He finished grimly.

As his words sunk in, Luke drove his forehead into the seat in front of him. "Of course they did, it's the only thing that makes sense!"

"But _where's_ Donatello?" Jenna demanded. "When did you get separated?"

The turtle's shoulders trembled fiercely, as he tried to steady his own voice. "I...I left him. He was stunned, and he couldn't do anything. He told me to take his bag and run. And I _left_ him!" He finished with a sob.

The turtle wasn't going to be good for anything else now, the humans weren't able to get another word out of him.

"Luke, we've gotta go back!" Jenna said immediately.

"We have to do something!" Karina chimed in desperately behind her.

"We _can't_ go back." Luke spoke the sobering truth. "We're not equipped to deal with these men, or their weapons. All we'd do is make matters worse at this point."

The man glanced out of the windshield, to where their driver was huddled on the stoop of the motel sidewalk.

"But we shouldn't stay here either. We need to get Sarah back in the car. I think someone's going to have to talk to her, she might be losing it out there." He added.

"Luke, you should go." Jenna told him. "She likes you the best."

"Are you insane? Why would you even say that?"

"She practically made you the star of your own fic."

"I know you're not talking about Manhunt right now. That's supposed to be an indication of how much she loves me? How can you tell when she _doesn't _like you?"

"Luke, please?"

The man rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'm going." He said resolutely, his hand already searching for the seat release.

He crawled out of Sarah's driver's side door, stretching a little painfully as he walked over to where the woman was perched.

"What are you doing?" He asked her quietly.

"I don't know what I was thinking." She murmured, hardly loud enough for him to hear. "I'm not cut out for this, I'm not this kind of person."

"No one ever really knows what they're truly capable of, until they're pushed Sarah. Now I would be happy to drive us myself, if I only knew how to use a manual transmission. That's a helpful skill you could have given me."

"Hey, I don't control_ everything_." She said a little sharply. "You could have learned in your own free time."

"Relax...I'm just trying to keep you calm."

"I'm sorry," She said at once. "But you saw me, right? I'm not any good at this. You'd all be better off without me."

"You did fine Sarah, the first car chase is always the hardest. I know this is a lot to take in, but we really need to get out of here, don't we?"

Sarah was just starting to rise, when her cell phone rang. She almost didn't answer it, but some outside force seemed to be nudging her hand.

"Hello? Oh...Erin, now really isn't a good time."

"Sarah wait, you've gotta listen to me. Were you expecting someone back at your house?" She asked without any kind of prelude.

"What are you talking about?"

"Okay, well, I got off work early tonight. I was sorta just planning to show up at your house, maybe get to see everybody? I didn't think you'd really care, but then there were these creepy looking guys, and I didn't know _what_ to do! They had the front door open and everything, but I didn't see your car. I just kept driving...should I call the cops?"

"NO!" Sarah said immediately, and glanced at Luke. "Men came to my house." She told him tightly.

Luke balled both fists. "They must have traced your plates."

Sarah swiftly turned back to the phone with a shudder. "Erin, get out of there! Don't call anyone."

"Are you alright? What's going on?"

"You wouldn't believe what we've just been through. I'll call you when I can, okay? Just get yourself out of there."

Sarah hung up the phone with a frightened breath. "I guess you're stuck with me." She told Luke.

"Where can we go from here? Do you know someplace else that would be safe for Mikey?"

Her hazel eyes had a searching look for a moment, and then she nodded. "Yeah, and we're already more than halfway there. If we get back on the highway, I can connect us to 70, and get us up to my aunt's place in West Milton. I don't know where else to go."

* * *

The rest of the drive was mostly silent, as Sarah took them over unfamiliar roadways, and then through a couple of very tiny towns. By the time they'd actually made it into the country, everyone was starting to wonder how far she was taking them. She turned left at a large Water Wheel, and then looked back at the others in her rear-view mirror.

"We're almost there." She assured them.

They traveled about two more miles, before she made a right turn on another road. Mike stared out the window at the row of houses along the street, as Sarah slowed down so she wouldn't miss the correct one in the darkness. She stopped just before the one she actually wanted, and surprised everyone by pulling up onto the grass.

"What are you doing?" Karina asked her.

"It's alright, this is the best way I can get access to their woods. The path is big enough to handle my car, trust me. I've done this before." She replied, and turned on her high beams as they entered the trees. "They call this section back here 'Fern Gully', you know, like the old movie."

She stopped the car, but left her headlights on for the moment. "Follow me."

The turtle and humans walked behind her out of the trees, and into a wide clearing that was already set-up with gear as if someone had been there.

"My car barely holds all the people, let alone their junk." Sarah explained. "When we camp, I usually come out here in advance to set things up with my uncle. We took care of it earlier this week, when I came to get a house key. He's really handy, there's even a generator set-up out here for when they have parties. I've got more stuff back at their house. I'd say we could just stay there, if it wasn't for all the min pins."

"The what?" Karina spoke up.

"Miniature Pinschers - my aunt and uncle breed them. They usually keep about a dozen at a time. Their neighbor helps look after them when they're gone like this, so they don't kennel them."

"No thank you." Michelangelo said swiftly.

"I think it's better to avoid the house as much as we can, they're a little hard to control all at once. My aunt usually asks for about ten minutes lead time from guests, so she has a chance to get everyone corralled." Sarah added.

Luke was gazing at the facing of his cell-phone. "We've got service at least. We're going to need to call everyone."

Mike's head came up quickly with a jerk. "Donnie took a bunch of information from that lady's computer. He said April might be able to make sense of some of it."

"We're probably going to need to get her out here." Luke said at once.

"I'm gonna head up to the house, bring a few of the supplies down." Sarah told them. "I'll be back in a few."

"Jen, Kari, go with her will you?" Luke requested. "I'll get on the phone."


	27. Captives

Isaac was relieved not to be driving at this particular moment, he was so worked up over what had been going on while he and Williams were on their way downtown.

"Which did you manage to lose?" He was demanding over the phone of Lewis. "Don't you _dare_ tell me it was Donatello."

"No sir, he's contained, like the other two. I've tried to make contact with the pursuing team, but haven't been able to reach any of them yet. It's like they dropped off the face of the earth."

"Worthless idiots! You outnumber them five to one, and still it isn't enough. How could you let one get away?"

"We didn't realize that there was another car involved in the matter sir! But the men we sent over to that neighborhood are firmly in place, they have their instructions for when they catch sight of them."

"We'll be there shortly, just make sure that the turtles are together." Isaac ordered him. "I have some rapid adjustments I'm going to need to make."

* * *

Stolle was out of the car before it even came to a complete rolling stop, dashing in the direction of Lewis' van. The man was waiting for him, and instantly reached to open the back doors as his superior approached. A trace of a smile appeared on Isaac's face as he laid eyes on the three turtles, and he nudged the one that was closest to him.

"Ah, my old friend Raphael."

"He wasn't actually stunned sir, at least, not directly. He took some transfer off the blue one, and was overcome rather easily after that. Unfortunately not before he managed to destroy one of the rifles." Lewis told him.

Isaac shook his head. "He'll pay for that. Watch him like a hawk, even though he's bound. I would prefer for them to _remain_ unaware until we get them back to the Compound. I don't care how it's done, just don't do anything too severe. What of our sword wielding friend?" He asked a little darkly.

"He took a strong shot to the chest, Cooper said he was out instantly."

"Good. Now show me Donatello." Stolle said eagerly, climbing further inside so that he could get to where the last one was.

"I took him down myself sir, from behind. His shell bore some of the brunt of it. He wasn't unconscious when the others caught up to him, so--"

"_Why_ does he have contact burns if you shot him from behind? How close of a range did you take on him?"

"No sir, that's what I was trying to tell you. It was Simms, when he found the turtle still awake, he shot him a second time!"

"Where is he?" Stolle said dangerously, as he backed out of the side door of the van.

Williams already had a "friendly" arm cast over the offending man's shoulder. "I've already got him for ya boss."

"You worthless scum, you could have killed him!" Isaac spat directly in Simm's face. "That's absolutely unacceptable. Do please sever our ties with him Williams, I have work to do."

Stolle returned to the van swiftly, drawing his scanner out of the bag at his side. "Let's find those implants, shall we?" He said, with what was a rather sadistic laugh.

* * *

After using his machine to locate and then destroy their beacon's tracing capabilities, Stolle lingered a moment longer over the purple-banded turtle with a smile.

"At last. Good things do come to those who wait."

The man chose to ride in the front of the van himself, with another armed man to remain in the back along with Lewis, and the bound forms of the three turtles.

Raphael started to come around, only a couple of minutes into the drive. His amber eyes blinked rapidly in the darkness, trying to focus. The immediate vibration of the cold metal beneath his plastron could only signify one thing - they were moving. As his mind cleared and sharpened somewhat, the fact that he was chained also became obvious. A deep sigh was muffled somewhat by a rag, which truly was about gagging him.

The turtle turned his head slowly, and laid his eyes on the restrained form of Donatello.

_Oh shell, no! No, this can't be happening! Now would be a really good time to wake up._

Someone jerked his head up roughly by the tails of his mask, eliciting a growl of rage out of the turtle.

"You're not supposed to be up yet." The man said casually to him, yanking his head back further to expose his throat to a knife blade.

The turtle stared him down disdainfully. _Want to see a __real__ blade pipsqueak? Just wait 'til I get my hands on you._

"Stop fooling around." Lewis commanded the individual with the knife, and something metal made contact with the turtle's forehead a second time.

* * *

When Leonardo came back to himself, he found that he was lying on his shell, on what felt very much like a tile floor. Cold water was cascading over his chest like a mini-waterfall, the repetitive motion sending a partial spray into the air that was hitting him in the face too. He groaned aloud as his muscles contracted painfully, it literally felt as if every limb was cramping up at the same time.

Laboriously he opened dark eyes, then closing them half-way at once to try and keep water out of them. A preliminary test of his strength indicated that he was nowhere near ready to rise yet, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying to move out of the bewildering spray. His hands braced on the wet tile beneath him, as he tried to wriggle out of range of what was clearly a shower head.

A hard boot met him in the side, and instantly reminded the turtle of the last thing that he and Raphael had been doing. Leonardo turned a dark look in the direction of his attacker, eyes narrowing even further as the smug man reared to kick him again. As the foot neared him a second time, the blue-masked turtle yanked it out of mid-air, and jerked the man's leg so hard that he came crashing down to the tile floor beside him.

Before the turtle had a chance to do anything else, there was a rush of footsteps, and then four men pinning him down on all sides. He struggled furiously under them, until the blade of one of his own katana tapped hard against his chin.

"They're such beautiful weapons." A woman's voice said demurely, vaguely resembling silk. "And strangely fascinating, much like yourself I have to admit. Seeing one of you in person, is quite different than on a video feed."

His dark eyes fastened on the blond woman warily, but he said nothing to her.

"I can only imagine what must have gone through my father's head, the first time _he_ laid eyes on you." She told him.

"Your father?" He couldn't help repeating, as she needled the tip of the sword a little harder. _She can't be talking about Stolle._

"Why yes, you got to know him a little, didn't you?" She asked, in what was a very normal tone of voice.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said honestly.

"Yes you do, you just don't realize _who_ I'm talking about. You would have been much better off talking to him Leonardo, simply telling him what he wanted to know. Your other two brothers may have yet lived to see another day."

"Vale." Leonardo said, now understanding. "Vale is your father?"

"_Was _Leonardo, until your happy band jumped in." Lilah corrected him severely, nicking the edge of the katana sharply across his face.

The turtle steadied himself not to react to it, and Lilah smiled coolly. "Very much in control, aren't you? We'll see how long that lasts." She said in a slightly dismissive way, and waved her hand at someone else that the turtle couldn't see. "Go ahead and bring him in Williams. It's only fair to reunite them, after how much they put themselves through to get here."

The big man entered Leonardo's line of sight as Lilah stepped out of the way, and he wasn't alone. Williams had a firm grasp around the rib-cage of someone else, whom he seriously enjoyed flinging down on the tile floor with all of his might. The man's forehead came very close to cracking the floor, as Leonardo looked on with sudden horror.

"_Greg_!" He couldn't stop from crying, now struggling again as the men holding him down reaffirmed their own grips.

Williams didn't immediately touch the Agent again, who was heaving painfully on his side. He raised his head part-way after a moment, grimacing sadly as he made eye contact with Leonardo.

"There, isn't that nice?" Lilah remarked. "Together again, just like you wanted."

The woman nodded at Williams, whose smile had just grown from ear to ear. "I've been looking forward to seeing you." He told Leonardo. "But if memory serves me correctly, you'd probably choose yourself over him, wouldn't you?"

Williams drove his fist into Greg's mid-section, repeating the blow twice more as the man gasped for breath.

"You don't want him!" Leonardo yelled at the man. "It's me, it's always been about me! Ever since that first night we met, and I kicked your tail in front of _everyone_!"

"Too true." Williams seethed at the turtle. "But I'm just warming up here - my real energy is being reserved for you Leonardo. Though I should think about pacing myself anyway, I do have Raphael and Donatello to deal with too."

He laughed scornfully at the turtle's expression.

"Oh, you didn't know? You're not the only one who came along for the ride. It's a pity that the set isn't complete, but I'm sure Michelangelo will soon follow. It's a funny feeling, after months of nothing to do, I almost feel overloaded."

Leonardo dropped his head against the wet tile, fighting down the desperation that was leaping to the surface.

_That's it, isn't it? We're so finished_.


	28. Nail

*** For this chapter, I felt it necessary to borrow a two line phrase from the all important Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - "Don't Panic". Also, don't skim. Yes, you know who you are - don't do it. I made a promise, and I'm keeping it. ::Rubbing hands together:: Here we go.**

* * *

A wrenching sensation in his right shoulder was the first thing to welcome Raphael back to the wonderful world of "feeling". The turtle's amber eyes snapped open, and he jerked at the same moment. The motion was worthless, his arms and legs were hopelessly pinned in a manner that actually wasn't surprising to him anymore.

"Well, hello, hello." A somewhat familiar voice proclaimed almost fondly.

Instinct forced the turtle to struggle again in the chair, regardless of the fact that he knew he couldn't move. Just the sight of Stolle in front of him was enough to send the red-banded turtle into a whirl-wind of fury.

"It's been awhile Raphael. You win the lottery of luck of again. Your brother is not quite suitable for interview at this time, so we're going to get to catch up first, just the two of us. How have you been?"

The look in his amber eyes wasn't exactly what Stolle had expected. The turtle had been defiant the first time around too, but there had also been a strong undercurrent of fear that he'd never been able to completely mask. His expression now was the boldest that Stolle had yet seen out of him, as he refused to even blink in the face of the man who'd broken him so severely.

Raphael didn't say a word to him, but his unflinching eye contact was seriously threatening to unnerve Isaac a little.

Stolle forced what he thought was a confident smile, as he pulled a chair over beside him. "How's the amnesia Raphael?"

He was startled by the half smile the turtle gave him. "Gone, right along with all of _you_." He replied.

"I'm sorry?"

"That's right. When I got my memory back, you disappeared like magic. Almost makes it all worth it, don't you think?"

"Interesting." Isaac said a little strangely, immediately getting back to his feet. "Then you don't recall any of it, nothing that happened during your stay?"

"Nope." Raphael said casually. "Still have a few _bones_ to pick with you old man."

Stolle chuckled. "Is that so? Perhaps we should just get right to the point then."

The man walked away from him for a moment, and Raphael took the opportunity to look around. In the direction that Stolle had gone were two desks against the wall, along with a bank of computers. When the turtle glanced to his right, he saw Donatello strapped down in a similar fashion as he was. Anger and heat seethed beneath the surface, at the thought of Stolle even touching his younger brother again.

Stolle tapped him firmly on the shoulder to get his attention back, and held a small device right before his eyes. From Timothy and Marc's description of it, the turtle could pretty much guess what it had to be.

"You may not remember it Raphael, but you didn't think too highly of this tool on your last visit. It seems a refresher course might be necessary."

The turtle's unblinking glare rested on the man again. "Whoever you had last time Stolle, it wasn't _really_ me. You're gonna discover that I don't crack so easy."

"Let's find out, shall we?"

* * *

A newly bruised and bleeding Greg was being escorted through the hallway at that precise moment by Lewis. The man couldn't resist hesitating as they neared the Observation room, to see what Stolle was keeping busy with. He knocked on the door, and was greeted by Isaac's laughter.

"Oh, Agent Heffernan, it's nice to see you out and about. Where are you taking him Lewis?"

"Back to the additional holding area, Lilah said you guys wanted to split up the species?"

"Yes, we did agree on that. How are things going with Leonardo?"

Lewis smirked in response. "He's a work in progress. What about in here?"

"Moving along actually, I was just about to remind our former guest how much fun he had on his last visit with us." Stolle said, locking gazes with Greg. "Perhaps you'd like to watch Agent. I find that torture is normally a private affair, but this _is _a special occasion."

Greg didn't feel like his legs were going to support him, and the prospect of seeing torture unfold in front of him made him feel even dizzier.

"Do get the man a chair Lewis." Stolle suggested. "And then we can proceed."

Greg managed to exchange a mute glance with Raphael, which made Isaac chuckle harder.

"It will be more fun this way, won't it?"

As Lewis pushed Greg down in the chair, Isaac grinned at him, and held up the tool for him to see.

"Have you heard of this Agent? It's my own design of an electrocauterizer. A laser that specifically targets nerve endings, and causes pain that...well...you just have to feel to believe."

"Haven't you already put him through _enough_?" Greg demanded.

"He has informed me that he doesn't remember any of it Agent. It is just as if we were starting from scratch, and that doesn't bother me. I want you to pay close attention now, but you'll have to be a little patient. The worst of the pain takes a good ten-fifteen minutes to overcome the senses."

Greg's heart almost stopped beating entirely, and intense desperation seized him as Stolle turned back toward Raphael. The man cast Lewis a sideways glance to see how close of attention he was really paying to him, and then intentionally collapsed in the chair as if he'd fainted. As the brute moved to pull him upright, Greg drove his elbow into his jaw, with every ounce of force he presently possessed, knocking the man flat.

Adrenaline surging, he lunged at Stolle, knowing full well his strength wasn't going to hold out for very long. The element of surprise offered him a few seconds of control, long enough to rip the key ring from the man's belt. As he tried valiantly to hold off the man's advance with one arm, he brought the magnetized rod to bear on one of Raphael's manacles, successfully setting off the release. He dropped the rod on the chair in his reach, as Isaac gained the upper hand back on him.

The turtle was slightly shocked, but instantly realized what the man had done. He scooped up the metal piece with his free hand, and quickly performed the identical action on his other hand, following up with his legs.

Stolle had driven Greg back to the floor, a feat the smaller man could never have accomplished if the Agent hadn't already been a wreck. He struck the man repetitively in the face, stomping down mercilessly. He hadn't realized the fact that Greg had managed to free one of the turtle's arms, or the fact that said turtle was now_ behind _him.

As his foot started to come down yet again, Raphael caught the man by the shoulders, and hurled him furiously into the wall. The turtle dragged him off the floor as he fell, then rammed him flat against it in an impossible pin. Without ever taking his gaze off Isaac, Raphael called out to Greg.

"Get up Heff, get outta here!"

The man rose partway on his knees, but went no further as the turtle held Stolle at his own mercy.

"You're not gonna hurt anybody else." The turtle informed the man. "Not ever again."

When Stolle spit at him, the last remnant of self control went completely out the window, and Raphael's fist crashed into his rib-cage.

"That's for Donnie!" He exclaimed, following it up with a vicious knee to the man's groin. "That's for Tim!"

Raphael yanked the writhing man upright again, muscular green arm actually lifting him off the floor by his throat. "And this can be for everybody else." He seethed.

Greg heard the footsteps from the hall, but barely made it back to his own feet before the door came open. Three men practically fell inside of the room, Williams shoving his way inside behind them. They rushed at the turtle, but Raphael was in no mood to give up his quarry. He managed to send Williams to the floor with a buzzing skull, before Lewis ran in to help with an old style taser.

He brought the weapon to bear on his arm, shocking the turtle into swift submission. Raphael hit the floor on his chest, with a cry of both pain and utter frustration. Greg (who'd literally made no attempt to run) was thrown down beside him.

"You _idiot_." Raphael growled at him, right before Lewis tasered him a second time.

As the last vestiges of consciousness slipped away from him, Lilah was shaking her head from the doorway.

"I daresay, you could have handled that better Isaac."

Stolle was rising with some help, and an extremely strangled breath. The woman walked further into the room, and pointed down at Greg.

"Get him up for me, won't you?" She requested smoothly, and the two of the men moved to obey.

She fixed Greg with a cold smile. "There are certain people in this life Agent, who by definition are completely expendable. They may serve a purpose for awhile, but eventually, their worth is far outweighed by their worthlessness."

Lilah paused to raise the barrel of the .45, and rested it firmly against his forehead. "All such relationships must eventually be severed, and I deem it is the proper time to say good night."

As her finger moved toward the trigger, her glance suddenly flickered over to Isaac. Faster than anyone could blink, she turned the gun completely on Stolle, and fired a shot into the stunned man's abdomen.

The men were too shocked to move or speak, as the woman came over to Isaac's side.

"Good-bye my darling." She soothed, and fired a second round into the man's head.

Lilah smiled confidently at the men surrounding her, lingering a moment longer on Williams and Lewis.

"The two of you didn't sign on to follow me, so you have a decision to make rather quickly. If you'd like to leave, the door is open." She told them in a friendly way.

But the tone of voice was all too familiar to both of them.

"No." Williams said immediately. "We signed on for revenge, not for that man."

"Then you're with me?" She asked sweetly, as if they actually had a choice in the matter.

Williams nodded, shock still coursing through every vein.

"Very good then. Get our prisoners into stocks, two days - no food or water. And somebody clean up this mess." She finished.

Only after she left did Lewis actually let out the breath he'd been holding, exchanging a glance with Williams, who shook his head at him.

"She's her father's daughter alright." Williams muttered.

* * *

*** Yes, the nail is firmly in the coffin. And if for some reason, you were tempted to feel ANY sympathy for that man whatsoever, you clearly haven't read Buried.**


	29. Defense

Michelangelo had been lying awake for half the night already. Despite the fact that he couldn't stand the sound of Jenna's muffled crying on the other end of the tent, he also couldn't stand to leave her there alone. She'd been silent for the last few minutes now, her steady even breathing indicating that she'd finally worn out.

As quietly as he could, the turtle rose painfully off the ground, and ducked out of the tent into the night air. Their fire had dwindled somewhat, but was still burning obliviously in the background while Luke and Karina had been talking. Both humans glanced up as Mike approached, shoulders slumped heavily as if he were carrying the weight of the world that night.

"Hey." Luke spoke up. "How are you feeling? Physically I mean." He quickly clarified.

"I haven't noticed." The turtle replied dully, as he dropped on one of the logs beside them.

"Did Jenna fall asleep?" Karina asked hesitantly.

"Either that, or she's pretending so that I'll go away. Have you talked to the others lately? Are they on the road yet?" Mike asked either of them.

Luke nodded. "For at least two hours. They should get here before noon. Victoria's going to stay in New York, close to her own contacts in case we think of some way she could actually help us. Marcus, April, and Tim are coming down in Marc's Avalanche."

"Is Tim sure about this?" Mike couldn't help asking. "Getting this involved is a huge step to take."

"He's already involved Mikey. He's not going to contact the authorities, not now that they have..." Luke trailed off for a moment, and then came back in. "He wants to help, he wouldn't let them leave him behind. So Donnie really thought April could make some headway?"

"That's what he said Doc, that's all I can tell you."

"April's not a closet hacker, is she?" Karina asked spontaneously, actually getting a little smile out of Luke.

"No, hardly. But she knows her way around several operating systems, Donatello's included. He must have hit something pretty huge in that office to make him that desperate." Luke replied.

"Doc, I don't think _he_ even knows what he got." Mike told him. "He copied her hard drive right out, there's no telling what information is on there."

They lapsed into silence for a few seconds, and Mike noticed Karina fingering her cell-phone for the first time. He could tell that the woman had been crying too, but the look in her eyes at the moment was simply contemplative, as if her mind were somewhere else entirely.

She caught Mike's gaze, and held the phone up helplessly. "I've been trying to think of a way to tell Brandon about all of this, if it comes to..."

Michelangelo winced openly. "He doesn't even know she's missing, does he?" The turtle groaned.

Karina shook her head. "And there's no safe way to tell him, or to keep him from going to the police himself. It makes me wish that we'd already come clean about everything. We were never going to be able to hide it from him forever. Why oh _why_ didn't we just tell him?!"

"You were trying to protect them, same as all of us." Luke responded. "And you have serious emotion invested."

The woman's gaze fell to the earth, an exhausted sigh flowing through her chest. She hadn't been able to bring herself to ask either of them what the others' chances actually were. She wasn't sure she could even handle the answer to it right now.

"Where's Sarah?" Michelangelo asked suddenly.

"She was out behind the house, the last time I saw her." Karina told him. "I asked her to come back, but she said she wasn't ready."

"Where _is_ the house from here?"

"If you walk straight up, then take a right at the path, it just winds all the way around to the back gate. It isn't far." She answered.

"I think I'm gonna go check on her." Mike announced, dusting off the palms of his hands as he rose.

"I could show you where it is." Luke offered at once.

"Doc, it's okay. I think I should go alone. I'll be fine - I've got my phone in case of rabid chipmunks."

Karina jerked upright on her stump. "Do they have those here?"

The turtle _almost_ chuckled. "It was just a figure of speech."

* * *

He padded softly through the darkness, not bothering with a flashlight. It wasn't pitch dark anyway, and the path was very obvious and easy to follow. The turtle was trotting up to the metal gate in minutes, and reached over it to let himself into the backyard.

Michelangelo found Sarah, half-lying on a chair nearby the deck. She sat upright when the turtle revealed himself under the porch light, and rubbed tired eyes.

"Hi," She greeted him softly. "Do you need something?"

"No, I just came to find you." He replied. "To make sure you were alright."

"I'm the least of your worries." She answered, slowly sinking back into the chaise lounge.

"So...what are you doing?" He asked, as he sat down on one of the steps to the deck.

"Avoiding everyone - can't you tell? This is a real mess."

"It'd be better if you just talked about it, you know?"

"Talking would help...how?"

"Sarah, I know you got freaked out big time. You don't have to be ashamed of it."

Her hazel eyes met him momentarily, before turning away again. "To think I was like some silly school girl, imagining how exciting it would be to tag alongside all of you. I had no idea what I was getting myself into."

She let out a quiet breath, and then continued. "That sound keeps replaying in my head, along with this mental image my mind conjured up to go with it. I made a decision, and people _died_."

"You didn't kill them." Michelangelo said firmly to her.

"Not directly. But how many could have been hurt or killed, just because I had to drag that chase onto the highway?"

"It's no good thinking about what _didn't_ happen Sarah. The SUV was the only one involved, and you can't be blamed for it. We were running for our lives!"

"I know that," She said quietly. "But it doesn't change how it feels. You have to understand, I've never intentionally hurt anyone in my entire life. In the back of my mind, I'm not sure I really could, even if my life depended on it."

"Yes you could." The turtle said immediately without hesitation.

"How do you know?"

"Think about your niece and nephews for a second. What if someone tried to hurt them, or take them away from you?"

The tightening of her expression proved the turtle's point instantly.

"See? There it is." He stated. "You have protective instincts, you've just never been forced to access them before. It doesn't mean they're not there - you just have to have the right motivation. When you've never been physically threatened, it's hard to picture what you're capable of, until you're actually in the moment."

"I think I've come close before, but not quite." Sarah said thoughtfully. "And my reaction wasn't very reassuring."

"What happened?"

"It wasn't a big deal, but it's something I sure never forgot. When I was twelve years old, my older brother had this friend that used to hang around the house sometimes. He paid attention to me, and I liked it at first. I wasn't used to anyone noticing me. But then there was this one time that he caught me alone in the living room. He grabbed me, and he wouldn't let go. I didn't know what was going through his head, whether he was just messing with me, or he was actually serious. But I didn't like it, it scared me a lot. He was too strong for me to get away from.

Suddenly my forty pound cocka-poo (that's a half cocker spaniel-half poodle) came charging around the corner, barking and snarling like he was going to take the guy's head off. Of course he let go instantly, it ended up being hysterical to me. Boy did I love that dog."

"They're not all bad, are they?" Mike asked with a half smile.

"No, definitely not. The point is, I didn't even defend myself then. I didn't even scream."

"You didn't know how serious he was." Mike countered. "If his intentions had been clear, you would have reacted differently." He assured her.

"Maybe." Sarah allowed, a hint of concern sneaking back into her own expression. "You should be getting some sleep."

"What for?" He muttered. "It's not like it makes any difference."

The woman sat up further in the lounge. "How do you do this, over and over? The stress alone seems like it should kill you."

"No one ever said that we expected to live to be a hundred." He replied sardonically. "Truth is, I'd rather trade places with them right now. Everyone would be better off if they'd caught me, instead of Donnie."

"I'm glad they didn't get you, and I know the others agree with me." Sarah replied quickly.

"Doesn't change the fact that I'm worthless."

She shook her head vehemently at the turtle. "Don't _ever_ say that Mikey. I think it's possible you have more of a part to play yet than you think."

"How do you know?" He repeated, ironically in her own words.

"Because once again, a lot of things that happen to us and with us, have nothing to do with chance." She replied simply. "And all of my 'author's intuition' tells me you're here for a reason."


	30. Regrets

The blue-banded turtle had sat motionless inside of the cell for quite some time, after listening to Katherine's complete telling of everything that had happened since they'd lost contact. She'd already been on her feet in the cell across from him when he'd woken up about an hour before, and almost wished that he hadn't. But seeing_ her _in the flesh was somewhat relieving to his mind, particularly because she wasn't as roughed up as Greg had been.

Mentally, she was more shaken than Leonardo had ever seen her, which wasn't the least bit surprising. Strangely, it was her posture that was bothering him the most. It had always bee a mark of her intense strength that he'd never seen falter, but now seemed to be on the verge of a great collapse.

"You know this isn't your fault." The dark eyed turtle spoke what he knew was in her mind. "None of it."

The bronze haired woman turned a brief glance on him. "Whether it is or isn't, it doesn't change reality. We accomplished the exact _opposite_ of what we set out to do. We moved too quickly, and didn't stop to consider sources. And now what do we have for it? They've got everybody."

"Not everyone Kat." Leonardo reminded her. "And we're quite responsible for getting ourselves caught."

The woman collapsed against her cell wall, with what sounded like a quiet sob. "I never thought it would come to this. I've imagined what it would be like to die, a dozen different times during my career. But to see everyone I care about coming down with me...it has to be the worst torture there is. That woman knows exactly what she's doing."

"I know what you're talking about Kat, how hard it is to take the suffering of others around you, and feel responsible for it." He told her, and then paused as he contemplated his next words. "But there are worse things. Like dying without honor, or without anyone who would so much as care or notice if you were gone." After another beat of silence, he continued again. "It's easy to disregard yourself, when the lives of others are at stake. That's the person you've always been, ever since we first laid eyes on you."

The woman smiled slightly, at the memory of their meeting inside the United Nations

"One fateful night at the UN." She filled in. "If only I could have imagined then, how simply going to work that day would completely alter my life. You perform thousands upon thousands of mundane tasks, and then you wake up one day, and a few bombs change everything.".

"We still think you probably saved all of our lives that day, just because you doubled back to warn us." Leonardo told her. "You are far and away one of the bravest people I've ever known. And seeing what you've done for Luke...Kat, I'm not sure you even understand how much you changed his life."

"_You _guys are responsible for that." She retorted.

"Nah. April started it, we continued it...And you finished it."

Uncontrollable tears sprang to the woman's eyes. "It's not finished." She proclaimed. There's so much we never did, so many things that we wanted..." She trailed off for a few seconds, sniffing sharply. "You put things off, because you feel like you have all the time in the world. Until you wake up one day to find out that years are gone, and you can't even remember why you waited so long."

"But you can't deny that the time you've had has been good." Leonardo reminded her. "In the end, you might have some regrets, but they don't even start to outweigh the joy the two of you experienced, do they?"

The woman smiled for real that time, as she imagined the deep blue of her husband's eyes. "I wouldn't trade these last few years with him and you guys, for a thousand years of a different life."

* * *

Nicholas Sharp was feeling just slightly overwhelmed. In the span of less than eight hours, he'd gone from being Isaac's technical assistant, to being in charge of _all_ the security measures at their base of operations. He had no real love lost for the man, though he'd grown to respect his technical genius.

In all honesty, he was probably the only person not completely shocked by Lilah's outright murder of him. The woman had stolen Nicholas away several times over the course of the last few days, testing his knowledge and understanding of the systems that Stolle already had in place. He'd worked under the man for close to five months, which was long enough to have a good grasp, even if he wasn't mentally prepared to control the helm.

He knew Lilah was well aware of his own uncertainty, which made him ponder how much she really must have hated Isaac to go ahead and kill him anyway. It was a thought that he couldn't afford to spend much time on, not if he wanted to stay on her good side himself.

_Forget the past, forget that you ever laid eyes on the man_, he counseled himself, as he headed through the door of the Observation Room. _You've got enough to focus on right in front of you._

He took a deep breath, as Lilah rose from the desk to meet him. "Ms. Stone, the problem with the magnetic seal isn't going to be quickly resolved. I think an important component has been completely corrupted. It's going to have to be replaced."

"But you can fix it." She clarified.

"Uh, yes Ma'am, I just need a chance to get the part. In the meantime, we bunked the red one and that Agent together, like you asked us to."

Lilah nodded cordially. "Go and get what you need, take someone with you. I want that other cell to be operational too - we're going to need all four before long here."

Nicholas cast a glance at the purple-banded turtle that was on the other side of the room. "Do you plan on moving him anytime soon?"

"No." Lilah answered. "He stays. I want to keep the brothers separate from each other, and my own personal business starts with that one anyway." She said a little darkly, and gave the 23 year old Nicholas a fair smile. "Hurry back now."

"Yes Ma'am." He replied, and swiftly disappeared the way that he had come.

* * *

The sun was just beginning to crest the top of the trees around the Compound, when Donatello gave his first true sign of stirring. He shuddered through a deeper breath, and grunted very softly. He was aware of a tingling sensation over the surface of his skin, which gave way to a sudden chill that wracked his nerves.

His mind slowly rallied as he tried to decipher everything that he was feeling, while also searching for his last memory. Chocolate brown eyes flinched and then opened, to stare up at an unfamiliar ceiling. As he laid motionless for a few seconds, events came flooding back to him, and an automatic instinct to struggle upright kicked in.

The turtle didn't make it far before running into the metallic restraints that were clamping him down. He rolled his eyes in irritation first, but then started trying to get a look at the make of one of the contraptions that was holding him down.

"You'd find them fascinating no doubt, Isaac certainly loved them." An unexpected woman's voice startled him, and he jerked his head so fast that he nearly gave himself whiplash on top of everything else.

"They're magnetic." She informed him. "Not even the full force of your strength is a match for it, we made sure."

Donatello stared at the woman for a long moment. "You're her." He finally said plainly.

"Why yes Donatello, I am." She said coolly.

As she walked toward him, he saw that she was dangling something in one hand, a silver object that flashed when it partially caught the light from overhead.

"It's a very pretty thing." Lilah said with a smile, as she revealed the medallion only inches from his face.

She sensed the turtle's muscles tightening severely, and had to chuckle. "I never understood the sentimental value that people, or creatures, I should say in your case, place on simple trinkets. It seems that putting that much intensity into one place, would cause you to lose focus in others. Don't you agree?"

Donatello said nothing to her, and valiantly tried not to react to the woman as she drew Jenna's necklace out of his sight.

"Where's Stolle?" He asked instead, a question which was very much pressing on the back of his mind.

"Do you mean, is he off torturing or otherwise dismembering one of your brothers?" She laughed. "My business with Isaac has concluded. I only required his assistance in gaining access to all of you. Now that you're here, I was able to put that farce to bed last night."

Lilah could tell from the look in his eyes that he didn't know what to make of her.

"What could _you_ want from me?" He finally said.

"Isaac had very grandiose plans concerning you turtle, which actually might have been interesting to have seen played out. My own intentions are somewhat simpler." She answered, and sat down by the turtle for a moment, tracing a finger lightly over the outline of his jaw. "I don't care how intelligent you are, or even where you came from. My only desire is that you would suffer. Isaac would have harmed you plenty, but his methods would have been faster. He was impatient, and thereby careless. My own brand of pain takes a different approach.

But we have plenty of time to get into all that, I'm quite certain that Williams will want his own chance to greet you. I think he may have worn himself out on your brothers last night, but I'm sure he'll be bright and chipper soon enough."


	31. Restitution

When Greg opened his eyes that morning, the first thing he heard was Raphael's voice.

"You're an idiot."

The man struggled to turn his head, meeting Raphael's amber gaze with the one eye that _wasn't _practically swollen shut.

"You said that." Greg's voice cracked, as he strained for a moment with the chains that were binding both arms and legs to the cell wall.

"It's worth repeating." The turtle said angrily. _"Darn it _Heff, why couldn't you at least try to get out of there?"

"Raph, I couldn't have made it far." He said honestly, a wheezing cough wracking his chest when he tried to take a deeper breath. "I don't even know how I tackled Stolle."

Raphael's eyes darkened again at the mention of the man. "I _had_ him. I shoulda killed him when I had the chance."

"He's dead." Greg said wearily. "Lilah shot him in front of everyone."

The red-banded turtle was _almost _speechless. "Just like that? What a psycho. None of these people are actually on each other's side, are they?"

Greg had to fight down another coughing fit, before he could start to respond. "Only when it's convenient." He strained.

"You don't sound good Heff. Don't _look_ good either."

The man forced a smile for the turtle. "I'm still kicking Raph. They ain't broke me yet, just _parts_ of me."

The turtle's own expression was livid, as he fussed with his own chains uselessly. "I swear, I'm gonna get you out of here."

"Why don't you get right on that Raph?" Greg said sardonically, as he let his head fall to rest against the wall.

"I'm pretty sure you saved me from a world of hurt Heff." Raphael said quietly. "Thanks."

For that, the man mustered the energy to lift his head again. "It was totally worth it, just to see you beat him."

"Too bad I couldn't finish it."

Man and turtle lapsed into silence for a few seconds, before Raphael craned his neck to try and see Greg better again.

"Have they had you locked up this way the whole time?"

"No, this is punishment." Greg explained. "Someone's sick kind of medieval thrill or something."

"Have any of these jokers said anything about Leo or Donnie?" Raphael forced himself to ask.

"I haven't heard anything, except that they wanted to keep you separated."

"'Course they do." Raphael muttered. "What I wouldn't _give_ for a fighting chance right now!"

"You still could get it." Greg said, but his voice was less confident than it had been even twenty-four hours prior.

"Don't you give up on me Heff." Raphael said sternly.

"Sorry." He said a little faintly. "I think I'm just tired."

"Think you could get some more sleep?" The turtle asked him.

The resounding bang of a door being swung completely open made Greg softly sigh.

"Fat chance of that." He told the turtle.

"Good morning boys." Lilah said with a sing-song quality. "I thought you'd both be awake by now."

Raphael had to squint to get a better glimpse of the woman through their bars. He growled something unrepeatable when he saw what the woman had around her neck.

"That ain't yours!" He said fiercely.

"To the victor, the spoils." She replied with a shrug. "Your brother's not going to need it anymore."

"What have you done with him?" The turtle demanded.

The woman smiled evenly. "You'd like to know, wouldn't you?"

Raphael's glare intensified as she entered the cell that he and Greg were sharing.

"If I were you, I'd focus more on my own skin at this point. Regardless of what I do with Donatello, you're _all_ going to end up the same way." She said casually, and then turned her gaze on Greg, who had yet to look at her.

She reached out long fingers to guide his chin upright. "It brings back memories, doesn't it Agent?" She said mock sympathetically. "All those years of abuse. No matter how much time passes, it can still come back to you, can't it?"

He met her gaze rigidly. "Shut up." He proclaimed.

"It's interesting, the direction a childhood can push us in. But I guess when you're _born_ worthless, it's pretty hard to move up from there." She said scornfully. "It permeates your entire life, until you find yourself throwing everything into a career, just to satisfy some divine need to make restitution."

Despite how badly he wanted to rage at the woman, Greg shut his mouth and refused to say anything else. Getting a rise out of him was all she wanted to do. She patted his cheek after a moment, and then backed out of their cell.

"I do hope that you can relax, and enjoy as much time as you have left." She encouraged them, and left the room.

Raphael exhaled sharply, trying to release some of the pent-up frustration. He glanced over at Greg, concern evident.

"Are you okay Heff?" He finally asked.

The man nodded, but his simultaneous swallow made the turtle doubt him.

"She just hit a nerve, and that was the whole point." Greg told him. "It's not a good feeling, having someone see through you."

He met Raphael's gaze, and held it now. "It's been a year, and there's still a lot that you don't know about me."

"You don't have to explain anything because of that witch." Raphael assured him.

"Like we have something better to do?"

"We could quote Crouching Tiger back and forth." Raphael offered with a grin.

"In Mandarin? Raph, I don't know the movie _that_ well." His half-laugh turned into another wheezing cough, and he had to clear his throat before he could speak again. "You know, as a kid, it wasn't until I started school that I realized my life was...pretty different."

****

The hand gripping the sandy-haired boy's arm was so tight, that it was leaving physical impressions.

"I've warned you a dozen times boy! If you can't come up with your cut in the space of an afternoon, I'm gonna pull you out of that school for good!"

He resisted the urge to squirm under the pressure; he'd learned over the years that it only served to make the man twist harder.

"I'm sorry Spike, I can get the money! Lemme go now, and I'll get it, I swear!" The boy fumbled.

"Darn right you will kid. It's about time you had your _real _education. Your good for nothing whore of a mother, she doesn't quite bring in her fair share to the house. So you've gotta pull up the slack for her, make your own contribution for where she's sadly lacking. That's the way things work, see? Living ain't free, and if the two of you want to stay, you've got to pay the price.

There's tons of girls I could have taken in, who could pull double the price the old broad is getting, and don't have a bastard son to boot. I've done the two of you a favor, and if you can't be appreciative, then you don't belong here."

"I'll get the money, I'll go right now!"

"Do that kid, or don't come back at all. You've got until midnight, and if you ain't back by then, then I'll assume you wanna kiss your happy home goodbye." Spike punctuated the last word by jerking the nine-year old completely around, and shoving him hard in the direction of the door. "Go on and beat it, before I decide not to give you another chance."

****

"The older I got, the worse the demands." Greg said evenly. "I only had to steal a couple of times a week in the beginning, to make up the figure that he wanted. But it kept increasing, to the point that I was on the street pretty much every day, just trying to help buy us another week in 'paradise'."

He hesitated for a beat, and then went on. "Then stealing wasn't enough anymore. He wanted to use me to help move his drugs, carry contraband onto school property. When I wouldn't do it, he pulled me out of school completely. He said that I could either carry his junk at his side, or he would triple our 'going rate', to make up the difference.

Stealing became pretty much a full-time job at that point, but I'd gotten good at it. Any money my Mom was bringing in from her...business...was going straight into Spike's drugs. He had her bound up so tight in the addiction, she wasn't ever getting out."

"Did you ever try to run?" Raphael ventured to ask.

"I thought about it. But every time it crossed my mind, I'd get this picture of my Mom, with all the life strangled out of her. Until I came home from a day of pilfering, and found her stabbed to death instead. That was when I ran. I was thirteen."

"_Shell_ Greg, what'd you do?"

"I subsisted the same way that I had most of my life. Like I said, I was good at it by now. I fell in with some older kids, made myself a safety net with them by the skills I could offer. I was out there...about two years, until one night changed things.

Over the years I'd discovered that churches could be a real pay-load after weekend services. I'd hit half a dozen maybe, the whole time I'd been on the street, never the same one twice. Then there was this late Sunday night when I went in to check out a new one, and took a couple of the guys with me. We weren't expecting anyone to be there, so when we got surprised by the priest and a janitor, one of my 'friends' freaked. He shot at them, succeeded in killing the janitor...I didn't even know he had a gun on him.

We ran, split up immediately. Lucky me, I got chased down by the cops. But they couldn't prove anything, and the priest wouldn't identify me. But then he was sitting outside when I left, like he'd been waiting the entire time I was being discharged by the cops."

Greg looked off into the distance for a few seconds.

"He said he wanted to get me off the streets. I didn't trust him, but I figured he could just as easily get me locked up, so I went with him. Father James got me back into school, tried to put me on a good path. He was partially successful, but I was hard-headed too. I behaved well, as long as I was under his watch.

But when I started college, I went all out on alcohol, to the point where I was on the verge of getting kicked out of school. When he came to bail me out for the third time in five weeks, he only said one thing to me that entire night. 'You were bought for a price, therefore honor God with your body'. I must have thought about what that really meant for weeks afterward. By the end of it, I figured he was just saying that I was wasting the chance he'd given me. And it was true.

So I changed my direction, changed my career path, and set out to make amends for my own life. Father James died, two days after I graduated. It was as if he just had to make sure I actually finished."

"How did he..."

"He was just old Raph. People _do _occasionally still die from old age." Greg said, and sighed quietly. "Hard as I've tried, some things are harder to make up for than others."


	32. Outside

It had been necessary to set April up inside of the house, where she could actually work at the table with Donatello's laptop. Even as she logged into Lilah's workplace connection through the hijacked link he'd created, she honestly felt very overwhelmed._ I don't know what you're hoping I can accomplish here Donnie, _she thought ruefully_. I don't even know where to start looking - this feels absurd._

A bleary-eyed Luke was still leaning against the counter island, seeming to be almost asleep on his feet. Marcus threw his friend a sharp glance over his shoulder.

"Luke, go get some sleep already. Like _now_." He ordered him.

Luke waved him off, but didn't argue either. He left April and Marcus on their own in the kitchen, and retreated outside to go back to their camp-site. Sarah had crashed on the couch in the family room just off the kitchen, in case the neighbor happened to come by again, and she'd have to explain the strangers. She'd already assured both April and Marcus that she was perfectly capable of sleeping through their moderate noise.

"What are you looking at?" Marcus asked April for the first time.

"I don't even know yet." She answered. "There's a lot of technical gibberish, which might have meant something to Donnie, but it's pretty lost on me. I think he overestimated what I can actually do Marc." April finished honestly, and his hands immediately came to rest on her shoulders.

"Hey. You've just barely scratched the surface, right? You're not allowed to sound this discouraged for at least eight hours."

She managed a small smile for him, taking a hold of one of his hands lightly. "I have to admit, I wasn't optimistic coming into it anyway."

"April, we both know that Donatello's no dummy. He has faith in you, and I don't think you ought write that off without giving it a chance."

"Because it's not like everyone in the universe is counting on me or anything." She muttered in return.

"Is there something I can do to help you?" He asked.

She actually considered the proposition, casting a glance over at her own laptop nearby. "It would be possible to go in two different directions here."

"What can I do?"

"I haven't touched the flash-drive yet. There's a ton of information on there, and we're only going to be able to access it a portion at a time. My computer doesn't have remotely enough memory to handle the entire download."

"Do you know what he was specifically looking for?"

"I don't think _he_ even knew, that would have been the reason he flat out copied the hard drive. He also set up a backdoor to her network here on his own laptop, but I'm struggling to locate the third party."

"What third party?"

"I think he assumed Stolle created a window for himself, so that he would have access to all of the Technology Center's security systems, from outside of the facility. My gut says that he found the man's entry point, the question is whether or not _I _can do the same thing."

"Well, not while you're talking to _me_. So set up that drive or whatever, and I'll get sifting through it, while you do your searching."

* * *

Luke and Karina hadn't slept a wink all night, so they'd both finally gone to rest in the tent, while Michelangelo, Jenna, and Tim were sitting outside in the clearing. The woman had yet to say very much that day, but cast the turtle a knowing glance as he picked at the remains of a granola bar.

"You know you did what you had to." She affirmed to him.

"I shouldn't have been there, I shouldn't have even been _here_ to begin with. Leo or Raph could have gotten him away." The orange-banded turtle replied.

"_Stop_." Jenna said resolutely. "Stop blaming yourself for something you couldn't control. I'm sorry I didn't talk rationally to you about this sooner, I'm just...I'm a mess Mike. I've thought about what it would be like to lose him so many times, but it still didn't prepare me for it."

"You talk about him like he's already in the past tense." Tim spoke up. "And we know that he isn't, that none of them are."

Despite the fact that Isaac had succeeded in destroying their implants abilities to be traced, the ever vigilant medical information that included all of their vital statistics was still being transmitted. Luke had discovered it with a small sense of relief the night before, even if he was furious about the fact that they weren't able to actually track them.

"He went to great pains to get them alive," Timothy continued. "Which should also mean that he has no immediate plans for killing them. That wouldn't make any sense."

Michelangelo nodded his agreement. "I'm with you Tim. But just knowing where they are..." The turtle said nothing more, not wishing to upset the raven-haired girl any further than she already was.

Jenna wasn't looking their direction now, but instead twisting the wedding band on her finger. "I miss his hands." She mumbled. "That has to sound so stupid."

"Not for someone who's in love." Tim countered. "But I don't want you to give up hope. God as my witness, there has to be something we can do, and I swear we're going to do it." He said insistently.

"You're going to have to be just as careful with concealing your identity, as Greg has had to be in the past." Mike warned him. "Getting this involved in a rescue effort means the bad guys are gonna see you, and we don't need any of them to be able to recognize you."

"The bad guy already knows me." Timothy reminded the turtle. "And I'm not so much concerned with being seen, so much as just _finding _them."

* * *

While Sarah had completely slept through April and Marcus, her cell-phone ringing had an entirely different effect on her. She bolted upright on the couch, hand immediately searching for the small black phone. _Krista? I told her I wasn't going to be around. I wonder what she wants_.

She snapped open the phone, stifling a yawn as she answered it.

"Hey Sarah, your niece wants to talk to you."

In the background, she heard Krista telling Chloe to hold the phone up higher, and to speak up louder.

"Hi Chloe," Sarah greeted the three-year old. "How are you doing today?"

"Good." The child answered, in her own characteristic way that made the word sound like it ended with a "t", instead of a "d".

"Where are you?" The little girl asked. "Am I coming to your house?"

"Not today Chloe, no one's there." She replied quickly.

"What about Dea and Pappy?"

"They're on the big boat, remember? I'm going to be gone for a little while too, but I'll see you soon, okay?"

"Okay, I love you."

"I love you too baby. Can I talk to your Mommy?"

Krista's voice was the next thing she heard. "So how long are you staying in those woods? It's hard on them having all of you gone at the same time. Cameron keeps wandering around my house, calling your names out."

"I'm not sure actually." Sarah told her. "But I..." She hesitated, not certain how to proceed from there. "There's been some weird stuff going on in our neighborhood Krista. Do me a favor, and just don't go near the house right now. I know that sounds weird, but you're just going to have to trust me."

"Are you actually getting yourself into trouble Sarah? I don't buy it." Her sister answered.

"Just promise me that you'll steer clear for now."

"If you say so. What's wrong here?"

"It's complicated." _Boy, if I had a dollar for every time that I use that phrase..._"I'll explain later, as much as I can. I kind of need to go now. Hug your kids for me."

"I'll send a new picture of Jayden, it's the best smile yet."

Sarah bit her lip for an instant, as she picture the four-month old in her mind.

_Oh God, please let her just stay away from there._


	33. Coward

***Once again...stay with me. Just stay with me. It's worth it. **

* * *

The purple-banded turtle was slightly mystified by the behavior of both the strange woman, and whatever man happened to be running the Observation Room at any given time. It had been a mixture of different individuals coming and going, and as of yet, he hadn't recognized a single one. He'd expected to have been engaged by someone by now, but no one had so much as touched him yet. That is, with the exception of the man who'd rudely twisted his arm when he caught the turtle nearly dozing, and then informed him that sleeping wasn't on the agenda for him.

The tingling sensation had diminished somewhat, but the muscle cramping still intermittently seized his chest, making it hard to breath deeply for a few minutes at a time. All of his thought had been bent on the particular restraints that were holding him down. He'd been wracking his brain for all the information he'd ever heard about magnetic seals. He was fairly certain he'd never heard of anything like these that already existed on the commercial market.

_It's a brilliant concept actually, if it's executed correctly. Still, I bet there's a way around having to deal with the lock, in the right situation. After all magnets __are__ magnetic because they attract, and you have to have opposite poles in order to maintain that attraction. There has to be someway that you could physically alter at least one of the poles, so that they'd be identical. In that case, the whole infrastructure of the seal would fail, _he reasoned to himself, and then rolled his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time._ It's one thing to theorize. If I can't get loose, the best ideas on the planet won't help me one iota._

As he heard the door open, the turtle raised his head slightly off the chair, and saw the shadows of three figures under the door frame.

_Oh __shell__, here we go._

"Take a break." Williams directed at the man by the desk, and sauntered his way over to the turtle. "The _ever_ elusive Donatello." The man proclaimed smugly. "What have you got to say for yourself now smart one?"

The turtle stared coolly at the man, as if carefully contemplating his words. "Where's your boss?"

"Stolle didn't make the cut." Williams answered sharply, cocking his head when the turtle snorted. "You think that's funny?"

"Not really. I'm just wondering here, if your own leader couldn't survive as a partner in this venture, how secure the _rest_ of you must feel."

The man's closed fist made hard contact with his chin, creating a mini shock-wave through his mind. Donatello was certain that the man hadn't hit him as hard as he necessarily could have, and could only guess as to why he'd hold back.

"It's clear that this is overdue." Williams said with a shrug. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

He motioned to the two men behind Donatello to join him, as he withdrew a peculiar piece of metal from his belt. Donatello watched sharp-eyed as the man lowered it over one of his magnetic bonds, more distracted by the technology in that instant than the fact that the man was about to seriously hurt him.

Donatello's balance was shaky as they deposited him on his feet, but the two men on either side were there to make sure that he stayed on them.

"It's fitting that we finally meet." Williams remarked. "After all, I've had my hands on all three of your brothers, and never even laid eyes on _you_. You've been holding out on me turtle." He finished with a chuckle, cracking his knuckles in front of him.

"So sorry to keep _you_ waiting." Donatello stated sarcastically, refusing to flinch when the man put a heavy arm around his shoulders.

"You were the thorn in Stolle's side, and the man had claimed you firmly for himself. But _actually_, with him gone, I'm free to have my way with you."

"As much as _Lilah_ allows you mean." The turtle pointed out to him.

The anger that flashed in Williams' eyes was no joking matter, but the turtle wouldn't stoop to displaying fear.

"It appears a lesson in politics is needed. I'll be happy to oblige you Donnie." The man said a little mockingly, reverting to the turtle's often used nickname.

Williams reached into his pocket to retrieve his favorite pair of brass knuckles. "This really never gets boring. Better hold up your end now fellas, stay with me." He commanded the men who were restraining the purple-banded turtle.

He brought his right fist to bear, focusing his brute strength on the turtle's mid-section.

"You and your brothers take more work to beat up than the average 'Joe'." Williams commented. "It's been nice having Heffernan around, _he's_ almost too easy."

The turtle seemed to react more to the mention of the Agent, than he had to Williams' blow.

"All of you waste so much energy, thinking about defending each other. If you just took care of yourselves, maybe you wouldn't end up here to start with." The man laughed, and then began to proceed more seriously with his assault on the turtle.

As he found his rhythm, each successive blow seemed to increase a little in intensity. The only place the man was sort of holding back his full force was on the turtle's face, since he had no desire to end things prematurely. After about ten minutes had passed, the man hesitated for a moment with a grim smile. He peered at the turtle's heaving frame, and laid a hand around him again.

"I told Raphael that your cowardice would come back to bite you. That's the saddest part, as far as you're all concerned. You could have finished everything that night in Hillsboro, if you weren't such filthy cowards."

The turtle's deep brown eyes actually fastened on the man, as he swallowed to try and force a better breath. "_Who's_ the coward?" Donatello managed after a moment. "You've_ never _taken...one of us in a fair fight...and won."

Williams expression was suddenly indiscernible, as he stared right back at the turtle. For a few seconds he didn't say anything, pondering the creature who wasn't even able to stand on his own. Then - "Cooper, Taylor, why don't you give me a few minutes? Just let him go. I've got this."

The turtle crashed to his knees the second they released him, but the men didn't immediately leave.

Williams scowled at them. "Get out!"

As they backed out of the room, the man strode up to the turtle, and rammed his knee directly into Donatello's face. The turtle slumped backwards on his shell, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it.

"Get up." Williams ordered shortly, waiting an instant for the turtle to respond.

As he attempted to get leverage on his elbows, he was met with a vicious kick that rolled him up on his side, gasping once more.

"I said _get up_!" The man repeated. "You want a fight, you've got one! I'll show you who's a coward."

The turtle forced his breath to even out, as he tried again to get his legs beneath him. A third strike to his embattled plastron rolled him yet again, and an impatient Williams dragged him upright like a rag doll.

"On your feetnow." He barked, holding the turtle steady for a few seconds as the Donatello's balance faltered.

But with a few moments to acclimate himself, the Donatello's legs automatically dropped into a defensive crouch.

"It's about time. It's pretty hard to have a fight by yourself." Williams taunted him, and drove the turtle backward into the wall.

Donatello brought his arm up to block a shot to his jaw, but it only pushed Williams to come on stronger with the next. His following blow made such forceful contact, that it snapped his head back completely.

"You were right, you know that?" Williams said gleefully. "It's more satisfying this way. Thank you for opening my eyes Donatello."

The turtle raised his arm again to block the man's advance, and Williams latched onto it this time, yanking the limb at a dangerous angle. He enjoyed the reaction that he got so much that he held on for a few seconds longer, toying with the idea of actually snapping it. Donatello's left arm shot out in an attempt free his right, but the usual power just wasn't behind it. Williams caught his other arm in the same fashion.

"It kinda seems like you really _want_ two broken arms turtle." The man smirked, but then inexplicably released them after a few more seconds of agony.

"You're just the beginning." Williams sneered at him. "I've waited long _enough _for my own revenge, and today marks the true start of it, right here with you. Is this all you've got in you Donnie? Part of me expected more, but that's probably because of how Stolle built you up."

In a flash, the man's hand was on his throat, an intense grip that had nothing to do with a mere threat. As Donatello stared into the man's eyes, he suddenly understood. This wasn't part of a game anymore, or a trick to simply torment him. Williams really meant to kill him.

"I'll take good care of your brothers," He assured Donatello. "At least until Lilah kills 'em. Those Agents too, after I finally get my own way with them. Then Michelangelo will pop back up, won't he? We have to complete the set. Luke will be next, he's never been a hard one to catch up with. And your girl, she ought be close by, right?"

The man licked his lips with another chuckle. "We won't be finished, not until we've tracked down each and every one of you. I'm claiming dibs on that little piece of tail of yours' for myself - she'd make a good trophy."

An infuriated growl pulsed in the turtle's throat, made raspy by the way man was strangling him. There was only one course left for him.

Donatello focused inward both to shut out the pain momentarily, and to ground whatever energy he yet possessed inside of him. Then in the blink of an eye, he wrenched his left arm free from William's pin, and brought his elbow down hard on the arm that Williams was choking him with. Drawing strength from the very core of his being, he sent a powerful upper-cut under the man's chin, and thought he actually heard the snapping of the man's vertebrae.

The man plummeted to the floor, and the turtle wasn't far behind him. Donatello willed himself to rise partway, crawling mere inches to where Williams had landed. Two fingers reached for the man's neck, to confirm what the turtle already expected. He was dead.


	34. Pain & Patience

Donatello mentally cursed his inability to rise. Despite the desperation clawing at his mind, he couldn't talk himself around the fact that he could hardly move. The turtle sighed grimly, knowing full well that there was no way that he (or what he'd done) would go unnoticed for very much longer. As he threw another glance at Williams' broken form, the glint of silver from his belt captured the turtle's attention.

Donatello reached for it, fingers searching at first, and then probing the metal rod that he remembered the man using to free him. The turtle worked it completely free from the keyring, and held it in a contemplative silence for a couple of seconds, before something occurred to him. Quickly, he unbound one of his arm bands, and carefully rolled the supposed "key" up inside of it.

He heard footsteps, and hurried to tie the material back on his arm, with the cool metal now resting reassuringly against his skin. Donatello yanked it tighter than he ever normally would have, for the express purpose of securing the hidden key. Fear actually _did_ seize him when the door opened, and a rush of feet followed.

Hands were on him in a manner of seconds, restraining him as if he still had the energy to _do_ something. Lewis had run to check Williams, and was shocked not to find a pulse on the man. His fingers searched another place shakily, only affirming what was already obvious. As a numb sensation traveled through his entire frame, Lewis rose from the floor to face the others.

"He's dead." He flatly informed them.

Fury blazed forth suddenly from the man, in the form of a vicious strike to the turtle's right knee. Donatello swallowed hard, clenching his teeth against the ricocheting pain that lanced through the limb that had been so vulnerable in the past. Lewis knew exactly what he was doing.

The second blow was stronger, but higher up on his calf, and nowhere near the ligaments that Marcus had repaired and reinforced about seven months prior. So maybe Lewis _didn't_ actually know what he was doing.

The man leaned heavily against the turtle's plastron, as he drew what was a rather long knife blade from his side. He tested the edge of it against the turtle's chin, indenting the skin just enough to make it bleed. Lilah arrived at that moment, and silently surveyed the scene in front of her, including the now deceased Williams on the floor.

She stepped directly over the dead man, and gazed coolly at the purple-banded turtle, who had blood running down his face like drops of sweat.

"Did someone try to take matters into their own hands?" Lilah asked non-chalently, as if there was nothing out of the ordinary going on.

"Williams wanted to take him alone Ma'am." Cooper spoke up at once. "He told us to leave, so we--"

"And now he is no longer with us." The woman said passively. "I see."

Lewis hated how calm the woman sounded. He wanted to slit the turtle's throat so badly, he was literally trembling.

"Let me finish this Ms. Stone! He's too dangerous to keep alive!" Lewis insisted.

Lilah reached out a hand to firmly guide his knife wielding arm back down to his side. "Killing him right now would be too quick, too easy Lewis. You might be satisfied for an hour, a day, but it wouldn't last. You haven't been taught the proper way. Most people treat all forms of pain and torture as if they're equal, none worse from any other. That's not actually the case. The best way to obtain true vengeance for the hurt that has been committed, is to completely _destroy_ your opponent, in every aspect. Mind, body, and soul. Revenge like that takes more time than thirty seconds, but the rewards last infinitely longer."

The man was still visibly quaking with anger, so that she grasped him by the shoulder. "Enough." She ordered. "Get him back into restraints."

"You mean I can't even touch him?" Lewis balked.

"I do not wish to afford our guest the luxury of being unconscious Lewis. That would go against my entire plan for him, which hasn't changed. He's not to receive _any_ rest - those are the orders."

* * *

Jenna had been walking around in silence for about half an hour through the field and wooded lot of the property. She had been traveling in circles, doing absolutely everything she could to avoid everyone else for right now. The air temperature around her was moderate, but she felt intensely cold to her very core, as if she'd been cut off from the sun itself. One foot in front of the other she kept going, even as her vision blurred through another cloud of tears.

She was used to being the strong one in the face of these kinds of circumstances, the one who had to encourage and push. Vivid memories of the past year from their ordeal in Hillsboro, and everything they'd just been through with Raphael had been filtering through her mind. She'd done her best to be a shoulder for Donatello through all of it. But only now in his absence was she starting to realize that her _own_ hope had depended so much upon the turtle himself. Whatever confidence she'd felt in the face of danger and unknowing, had been completely wrapped up in the one who wasn't here for the first time.

Jenna had intentionally ignored two separate phone calls from Victoria. She felt a little guilty for it, but honestly didn't want to even voice certain things as of yet. She was in the process of trying to spend more of the emotion, which was why she'd been walking aimlessly away from all the others. It wasn't even that she believed they'd think less of her for the tears. Jenna still wasn't comfortable in her own skin displaying that intense of emotions, that is, except with a certain turtle.

The woman came to rest for a moment on an old tree stump, hanging her head slightly as she stared down at the earth. The intermittent wind rustled her ebony hair so that it brushed across her face, in a way that reminded her of a gentle caress. She sniffed and exhaled deeply, shifting positions on the wood beneath her.

She heard the crunch of leaves and twigs under someone's foot, only in this case, it turned out to be _paws_. When she glanced up, she laid eyes on a small comical looking white dog, with pointy ears and a completely black head, as if someone had dipped the animal in ink. The animal trotted her direction, and the woman sat up further, a little bewildered.

"Where did you come from?" She asked, letting the dog sniff her hand indiscriminately.

The dog put her front paws up on Jenna's knee, and then nudged her arm with her wet nose until the woman finally pet her. Jenna spotted the tags on her collar, and climbed slowly to her feet.

"Do you live around here?" She wondered aloud.

The dog barked excitedly, and charged around the stump in a tight circle, before bounding through the tall grass a few lengths into the field.

Jenna laughed slightly in spite of herself. "You look like a jack rabbit. Where are you going?"

The dog glanced her direction to see if she was following, and barked at Jenna again. The woman followed as the small dog raced slightly ahead, and then doubled back to keep the woman in her own sight.

Only a couple of minutes had passed, before they were in range of the campsite they'd been using. It was only then that the dog ran further ahead, barking joyously to greet others in the general vicinity. Sarah ducked out of the tent when she heard it, and crossed both arms with a smile.

"Lindy, what are you doing out here?"

Jenna came up alongside her curiously. "Friend of yours?" She asked.

"She's the matriarch of the pack." Sarah informed her.

"Your aunt and uncle don't just have the min pins?"

"No, Lindy and another mutt that pre-date that whole venture. Around their house, she's the boss of all the others, in addition to being the sole wanderer and goat herder."

"I'm sorry, _what_?"

"They also own three goats, and they like to bring them out here for walks sometimes. Lindy's the only one who gets to come along, because she's behaved enough not to bolt. She helps herd them." Sarah repeated, chuckling as the small dog leaped at her arms. "She keeps everybody in line."

"She found me out there." Jenna said. "I think she sort of herded me too. She's cute, in her own unique way."

"She has enough personality for _three_ dogs. I should probably take her back to the house though, I get sort of paranoid with her running around free when my aunt isn't here."

Without saying another word, Jenna fell into step beside her, as Sarah let the dog run ahead of them back toward the house. Sarah cast Jenna a sideways glance, resisting the urge to ask how she was doing.

"I've been walking around with blinders on." Jenna said softly, without any kind of prompting when Sarah caught her eye. "I'm suddenly realizing that I'm not as strong as I thought I was."


	35. Paying

"Heff, wake up." The red-banded turtle urged the man. "Wake up!"

Greg jerked awake after Raphael called his name for the third time, suddenly gasping for the air that he _hadn't_ been getting.

Raphael had barely slept for more than twenty minutes at a time, as he was trying to keep a close eye on his friend as well. The man had stopped breathing in his sleep about three hours prior, and the one time was all it took to put the turtle completely on alert for him.

"Are you okay? Heff, are you alright?" Raphael pressed the human, as Greg fought to raise his chest a few inches, so that he could draw more oxygen.

The human nodded at the turtle through bleary eyes. "Sorry." He mumbled through parched lips.

"Don't do that, don't apologize. Do you think you can stay awake with me for a little while here?" Raphael asked the man, making every effort to mask some of his intense concern. He wanted to make certain that Greg's breathing pattern was back in a regular pace, before he let the man even think about going back to sleep.

"I'll try." Greg said a little stronger.

"I've been thinking Heff, wondering about something." The turtle said slowly, trying to engage his friend to help his mind focus. "Why do you still feel like you have to pay for something that you didn't do?"

The man's dark eyes only hovered about half-way open, but he at least made an attempt to glance Raphael's direction. "I set up the job." He mustered. "I led them into that church."

"You didn't pull the trigger." Raphael countered.

"Doesn't matter." He said stoically. "They wouldn't have even _been_ there, if I hadn't taken them. And then I ran - I didn't even_ try _to help."

"Heff, you were a kid."

"No older than some of the idiots you run into on a regular basis." Greg pointed out.

"That's completely different."

"How's it different Raph?" Greg wanted to know. "My life was stealing, ripping people off, taking advantage of them. I taught others how to do it too. Tell me how that's different."

"You're not like the dumb punks that are out there today."

"But I _was _like them Raph...And now I'm worn out from too many years of either trying to make up for it, or pretending like it never happened."

"That's my point exactly Heff. So why do you hang onto it? And why didn't you ever tell anybody about it?"

"Eventually, I figured this was just something that I was gonna have to live with. Kinda like my cross to bear. I was given a shot that I didn't deserve, and I almost threw_ that _away. I was bought for a price."

"That you've been trying to pay back for decades?" The turtle suggested.

"Something like that."

"Greg, I _don't_ think that was what your priest guy was trying to tell you. I doubt he wanted you to walk around the rest of your life, trying to be worthy of everything he did for you." Raphael said carefully. "It sounds like he didn't want you to waste your life, and you haven't. You did something with it, and you perform a really important job. On top of that, you're genuinely a great guy. Why can't that be enough Heff?"

The man seemed to consider his own words for a few seconds. "It's hard to explain Raph, it's just how it is. No amount of criminals I've helped arrest, or justice I've seen served, has changed the way that I feel deep down. Ignoring it can work for awhile, the women were a pretty good distraction. But I'd still wake up the same way, in the same boat I've been in my whole life...trying to make up for what I'm lacking."

"I don't understand." The turtle said honestly. "If you live the right way now, why does the stuff from the past have to matter so much?"

"It's a part of who I am, that I can't escape from." Greg said bluntly. "You have to understand a _little_ Raph. What about everything you ever learned about honor?"

"What about it?"

"Raph, I sank to depths that no human should go. I_ took _indiscriminately, with no regard for who I hurt. My survival was the only thing that mattered. So whether I was stealing from a millionaire, or someone who barely had a dime to their _own_ name, it didn't matter. I don't know if I'll ever be able to make a completely clean break with my past...or feel like that God of the universe isn't still waiting on me to actually be worth His time."

* * *

The combination of injuries, hunger, and thirst were all contributing to the exhaustion that was making it so hard for the purple-banded turtle to keep his own eyes open at that hour. A man had no longer been posted in the Observation Room just to watch the video feed, no, they'd been directed to keep an extremely close eye on Donatello as well.

It was difficult to keep heavy eyes awake, but anytime he let them slip, he was sure to pay a price for it. The last time that they'd closed seemingly of their own accord, someone had whipped him across the face with their belt, the sharp buckle coming dangerously close to one of his eyes. So here it was after 4 in the morning, and the turtle found himself going through various calculations of square roots, just as an effort to focus on something to stay alert.

While he'd by no means enjoyed his encounter with Williams, the man had revealed two very important pieces of information to him that made Donatello breathe easier on the inside. Michelangelo had gotten away, as had the other car-load apparently. As much relief as the knowledge gave him, fear had wracked his mind several times over the last few hours, as he wondered what was being done with his older brothers.

Lilah had yet to explain a single thing to him, even so much as why she was so intent upon him suffering. But her controlled reaction to Williams' death, in addition to her chilling rational on pain and torture, reminded him very much of _another_ sociopath.

The turtle intentionally turned his mind back to numbers, not wanting to pursue that line of thought any further for the time being. But as hard as he tried to focus, the math was getting jumbled, becoming too difficult to fix his mind on as exhaustion crept up on him again. Donatello forced his eyes open wider, his fingers gripping the side of the reclining chair he was strapped to, as if _willing_ himself to stay awake.

_C'mon, this can't actually be that hard. Shell, I've stayed up way longer than this before._

But that had been under the pressure of having to perform certain pressing tasks, and caffeine, along with other various forms of fuel had never been far behind. And he hadn't completely had his shell kicked first.

Donatello shifted what very small room the restraints allowed him, to assure himself that he could still feel the small weight of the magnetic key against his skin.

_I don't even know why I took it_, he thought ruefully. _I can't even get to it. I'd have to already be free, before I could even use it. That sort of defeats the whole purpose. I sure don't see them letting me up again anytime soon._

The turtle threw a longing glance across the room, in the direction of the computers. It was a very strange feeling to almost be in the perfect position to act, and yet be completely helpless to do anything about it. Donatello turned his head away from the monitors a moment later, before the man behind them could see him.

_There has to be a way out of this. There always is_, he tried to reason with himself. _That woman doesn't know who we really are, or what we're capable of. There could be a way to..._

Donatello didn't even realize that he'd started to drift, until two hard lashes across the face called him back to reality. He flinched slightly under the pain of the fresh welts that the strap had provided, and glanced up to face dark eyes that seemed to sear directly through him.

"No you don't." Lilah said smoothly. "You'd _better_ wake up Donatello, or I'll really give you a reason to shut your eyes."

"Why?" He asked, much more placidly than he wanted to.

"Still wondering, are you? You're supposed to be the genius; you can figure it out on your own." She said mockingly.

"I never claimed to be one." He said somewhat defiantly.

"Maybe not, but everyone else seems to be convinced that you are. And you_ did _seem to connect the dots easily enough, without even getting our help. You found your way to the Technology Center in record time. I'm curious about the woman though."

"What woman?" Donatello asked her.

"We traced someone's plates the other night, another car that was fleeing the scene of your own capture. By some _cosmic _coincidence, the woman from the BMV records very much reminds of someone who inexplicably turned up in one of my private elevators on Friday. That's very odd, don't you think Donatello?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." The purple-banded turtle lied, and received another sharp lash across the mouth.

"I can tell when you're lying to me turtle, and it's not going to help your case here at all." She said into his ear.

"As if there's something that could?" He asked dryly.

"That's true." Lilah allowed, a small smile appearing. "I found that entire ruse rather amusing. Was it_ really _your intention to send your least prepared contact into the lions den? That wasn't the wisest thing you could have done."

The turtle managed a smile of his own. "And yet, she escaped your men, didn't she?"

"We'll find them Donatello, you don't have to worry about that." Lilah said sharply. "There's still a lot of work to do, but I feel confident that the hardest part is already over. Three of the four of you are contained, in addition to your precious FBI Agents. All that's left is to sweep up the remaining pieces."

Donatello would have shrugged, if the restraints would have allowed him to. "I think it will be harder than you imagine."

"I don't mind a challenge Donatello." She informed him coyly. "But it's probably time that you gave your jaws a rest."

The woman selected a roll of duct tape from the desk, and proceeded to wrap it around the turtle's bleeding mouth three times.

"I'm going to get some sleep now, but I'll see you in a few hours." Lilah told him. "Do remember to stay awake."


	36. Rest Now

Lewis was angry. Actually, to call him him _angry_ was a pathetic understatement, at least as far as Leonardo was concerned. The blue-banded turtle was heaving to try and catch his breath, as the man finally took a breather himself, glaring at Leonardo silently. There had been none of the usual taunting this time, or even the precursor of warming up. The man had simply appeared a few minutes prior with two men at his side (in addition to an energy rifle if he required it), and started in on the turtle without so much as a word.

Something had clearly set the man off, and Leonardo happened to be the chosen object of his venting. Lewis' expression changed after a few seconds of staring the turtle down, and he shook his head in frustration.

"You're not a bad stand-in Leonardo - but it's still not enough." The man fumed, uttering his very first words since entering the cell. "Over the last year, I've watched everything that I could count on be stripped away, and today just tops it off. But then, it _did_ start with you, didn't it?"

There was renewed explosive power behind the man's fist, as he drove it into the turtle's jaw. The room flickered as if it were going to leave his view entirely, but a sharp slap chained him to reality.

"I'm not finished with you, but I do think Lilah's right." The man admitted, more to himself than anyone else. "The best satisfaction will only come from watching you suffer, _all _of you. I'd like to tell you about her plans, but I don't actually know myself. I know what I'd _like_ to do with one of your brothers, but Lilah's already claimed him as her own property. Donatello sure has a way of ticking people off. If she hadn't stopped me, he'd already be dead as I speak."

"You're playing the part of the brainless thug now?" Katherine called from across the room, purposefully attempting to divert the man off of the blue-banded turtle. "Aren't you afraid of stepping on Williams' toes?'

He cast an infuriated scowl in Katherine's direction. "_You're_ just lucky Lilah's savin' you for later." He informed her, and then smiled. "She doesn't want Luke to miss a single thing that concerns you. Fortunately, that doesn't apply to all of you."

The man was tired of holding back. With another haughty smile in Kat's direction, Lewis then turned back around the struck Leonardo with all of the force that he could muster. As the turtle sagged in his captor's arms, Lewis motioned for them to release him.

Leonardo collapsed forward on his plastron, unable to prevent his own forehead from hitting cement. Something about the motion was faintly reminiscent, and stayed with the turtle as consciousness slipped away from him.

****

(Several Years Ago)

Carried. He had the vague recollection of someone lifting him, but his legs were still partially dragging across the pavement. It had faded to black after that, at least for awhile. The next time he'd been aware of anything was when someone actually put him down for an instant, then tried to shift his weight carefully to find a better way to carry the blue-banded turtle the remaining distance.

A flash of concerned amber eyes burned into him, as the semi-conscious turtle wondered what could have his younger brother looking that anxious.

"Stay awake Leo! No, _c'mon_, you have to stay awake!"

Leonardo heard the words as if they were alighting on the wind from miles away. He tried to vocalize something in return, but didn't possess the energy at that moment to form intelligent speech. Heedless of his brother's desperate plea, dark eyes closed again, and the tunnel faded into nothingness.

The next sensation to trip his senses was an extremely familiar scent. It had the effect of partially dulling some of the throbbing pain wracking his skull, but it did no favors for the muddied thoughts that were still struggling to surface.

"Leonardo. My son?"

The blue-banded turtle didn't open his eyes, but he was at least aware enough now to recognize that he was hurt. He was hurt, and his Sensei was calling him.

"Master..." He groaned softly, and then as they had called him when they were small children, "Chi Chi..."

Splinter gripped the young turtle's hand stronger, and nodded at Donatello, who was hovering close by. "Go my son, and finish the sterilizing of what we need. I will stay with him." He told the purple-banded turtle, and turned back to his oldest.

The rat bit his lip in consternation as he drew the turtle's hand to his own chest. When their training had first began, and then again after the first night that his two oldest had been engaged with someone on the surface, Splinter had realized that the probability of injury existed. This wasn't the first time that one of them had come home bearing war wounds from their activity on the streets, but it _was_ the worst injury he'd yet to have encountered with them thus far.

He was so lost in his thoughts, that he didn't realize that Leonardo had opened dark eyes, and was now staring up at him.

"Sensei?" The turtle stated weakly. "Are you mad?"

Splinter released a trembling sigh. "No my son, I am not angry with you. But do not try to move yet Leonardo." He admonished, as the turtle made a serious attempt to sit up.

"I'm sorry Master. It was an accident, I--"

"Shh, hush Leonardo. I don't need an explanation right now. I want you to rest, not to even try thinking about anything."

The rat's fingers gently brushed Leonardo's eye-lids, as if to lull him back to sleep. The young turtle's chest shuddered for a moment before he released a deeper breath, relaxing at ease under his Master's touch.

"Don't leave me Chi Chi." He murmured.

Splinter shook his head firmly, even though he knew Leonardo wouldn't see it now. "Never my son, I'll be waiting right here for you. Don't be afraid to rest. Let go, and when you wake up, you'll feel better than you do right now."

He didn't so much as remove his hand from the turtle's head, until Leonardo's breathing was deep and even, and the lines of pain had slightly retreated from the young one's face.

* * *

Michelangelo was sitting propped up against the back of the house, a bundle of dark material drawn up around his shoulders against the cooler night air. Despite the fact that some of his friends were only a stone's throw away inside of the house, with the rest merely being back at their camp-site, the turtle had never felt more _alone_ than that very moment.

It was hard to even feel like himself without his brothers there. The thought of being forced to live without them wasn't something he really wanted to entertain yet, so he found himself sitting in silence instead, trying to still the voice in his head. Karina found him like that about an hour later, staring off numbly into space.

"Mikey? It's cold out here." She pointed out. "You should get up. Do you wanna come with me back to the fire?"

He met her light green eyes, but didn't budge so much as an inch. "We've always been a team._ Always_." The orange-banded turtle said out loud. "I think I truly believed that if we ever went down, it would be all together. I'm not sure any of us could bear it otherwise. I know I can't."

Karina went to her knees beside the turtle, loosely circling both arms around his shoulders. She couldn't think of any appropriate words in that instant, so she didn't bother speaking. His blue eyes fastened on her, realizing in that moment that the woman was trying to stifle her own fear, just to comfort _him_.

He dropped his head and started to pull away from her, but the woman's hand pursued him.

"Karina, you don't have to pretend to be okay." He told her. "Not just 'cause of me."

She shook her head at him. "I'm not pretending anything Mike. My heart feels like it's being ripped out of my chest. That doesn't mean I don't care about what you're going through. Do you wanna talk?"

"You don't want to hear what's going through my head." The turtle told her.

She positioned her own back against the brick, as if to indicate that she wasn't going anywhere. "You don't have to do this by yourself."

He closed his eyes against hot tears. "I'd rather die along with them, than try to live without them."

Karina was silent for a few seconds. "Would you want them to feel the same way?"

He shook his head vehemently. "No. But I'm not as strong as they are, and nobody needs me like..." Michelangelo didn't finish the statement, as he turned his gaze elsewhere.

"Nobody needs you?" Karina repeated questioningly.

"Yeah, you know what I mean. The guys can't be replaced, they're all sort of set apart, in their own strengths and duties. I was always the one who couldn't get along without them, not the other way around."

"Mike, that's just not true." The woman insisted. "You're a part of the entire back-bone of the family. _You_ might not see how much they need you or rely on you, but I sure do. Donnie once told me that you were the only thing that got him through the worst teenage years. You're not aware of the impact you've made, just with your spirit. Why do you think everybody hates it so much when you get upset or down about something? You have a profound impact on the entire mood of that Den, a power that's so much more important than you realize.

No one's always strong on their own Mikey. And your brothers aren't the same without you, anymore than you are without them."


	37. Coordinates

It was around 10am the next morning when April received another phone call, which was actually reassuring in a way. Her first move was to immediately find Sarah, who was back out at the tent with Mike and the other girls. Seeing the turtle sitting there reminded April that he'd want to hear this news probably more than anyone else.

"I need to get back into downtown Dayton, I just got a call on the Battle Shell. It was impounded, towed from wherever the guys left it." April told everyone at once.

"I can take you down there." Sarah said briskly, rising to go grab her purse.

"That's what I was hoping - you don't mind going right away?"

"Of course not. The sooner we get the van out of their hands, the better." Sarah replied, as Mike got to his own feet.

"I second that." The turtle echoed. "Maybe you ought take one of the guys with you April."

"I_ have _driven the Battle Shell before Mike." April said a little indignantly.

"No, I--I know April, I wasn't trying to disrespect. I was just sayin'..." The turtle stammered as the woman cast him a smile.

"We'll be alright Mike. I swear I can handle that vehicle of yours'."

"I never meant that you couldn't, I was thinking about...other people." He said honestly.

"You think this is a set-up?" The woman suddenly understood the turtle's hesitation.

He held up his hands helplessly. "I'm feeling a little paranoid is all."

"The call definitely came from legitimate police, I did check the number back. Would you feel better if Tim came with us?"

He shook his head a little sheepishly.

* * *

All three humans left about five minutes later, a somewhat awkward silence purveying in the Cavalier, until they'd had made it back to the highway. April caught Sarah glancing at her in the rear-view mirror for the third time, and finally crossed her arms.

"What?" She said aloud. "Do you want to say something to me?"

"Sort of." Sarah replied. "Or rather, I wanted to ask you something, but I didn't want to make you uncomfortable either."

"Do you need to pull over for girl talk? I can get out of the car." Tim said a little impishly.

"It's not really like that, I was just wondering...I wanted to ask if you were happy April. Not right now specifically, just in general." She asked quickly, before she could talk herself out of it again.

The woman cocked her head curiously. "Why do you ask Sarah?"

She really wasn't sure how to phrase the next stage of the question, so she decided just to come out with it. "I mean, are you happy with Marcus? I know he's not...well, he's not Casey. I realize I've seriously broken from the pre-existing script, and it's not really fair to you. I'm not trying to buck important traditions, or be 'God' of my own universe here. The truth is, I just enjoy the freedom that comes from able to write things my own way, and not have to conform to a certain mold. I don't have anything against Casey, or any of other glaringly obvious details that I leave out of my own version of reality."

As Sarah finished, she took a sharp breath, and turned her full attention back to the road.

"Sarah...I'm happy." The woman assured her. "It's not typical or expected, but Marcus is....he's special too. Don't worry about me, _or_ us."

Sarah nodded as she gave the woman another glance in her mirror. "It's nice to finally meet you April...it really is."

"Well it's certainly interesting to meet you too. And I appreciate you sticking your neck out here - I know it hasn't been easy."

"I got them into it." Sarah said simply, and then cast an inclusive look in Timothy's direction. "Sorry. I'm not trying to ignore you."

"Hey, I'm just the armed escort. I'm only along for the ride." He pointed out sardonically.

* * *

They collected the van without incident from the impound lot, and the two humans followed the Cavalier all the way back out into the country in West Milton. When they got back to the house, April pulled off alongside it, so that the van could be completely out of sight.

The minute they came around to the backdoor, Luke and Marcus raced outside to meet them, as if they'd been waiting around with baited breath.

"I told you guys it would be fine." April complained. "You don't have to take the door off the hinges or anything."

"Did Donnie bring his wireless printer from the city?" Luke asked with absolutely no lead-in, as if April would actually know the answer.

"I don't have the faintest idea Luke - you'd have to check the van. You have an urgent need to print something?"

"Maybe. I'll be right back, just...just hold on." He said hurriedly, and dashed in the direction of the Battle Shell.

"Marc, what's got you two so worked up?" April asked the man at once.

"We found blue-prints on that flash drive, very detailed plans outlining some kind of structure. It doesn't seem like they have anything to do with the Technology Center. Everything is set on single level, like a...I don't know, like a sprawling complex of some kind, nothing like the buildings downtown. The basic idea we've gotten is that the structure itself has been in existence for awhile, and the plans were being drawn up for renovations." Marcus answered, and held his breath when he saw Luke returning with the printer under one arm.

"We have a strong feeling that it's connected to Stolle," Marcus continued. "As well as whoever this woman is. That they were settting things up in advance, so they'd be prepared to handle everyone at once."

"It sounds as if you have some kind of _basis_ for your feeling." Tim spoke up. "Would you like to tell us what that is?"

Luke cast the group a somewhat harried glance, as he headed back in the direction of the kitchen. "The plans included details for the design of very specific _holding_ areas. Give us a few minutes to get stuff printed off, and we'll share everything that we have."

* * *

Less than an hour later, the seven humans (plus one turtle) had retreated back under the cover of the trees, with an outline of several pages of schematics. It had taken awhile just to get things laid out in a proper order on the picnic table, so that now one set of eyes after another was trying to read behind the intricacy of the designs.

Michelangelo had stared at a certain page blandly for a little over ten minutes, half-heartedly listening to the others talking back and forth, about using the existing building code to try and locate the property in some kind of public record.

_If Donnie was here, he'd be all over this, _Michelangelo thought bitterly. I'm so sick of feeling useless. _Why am I even bothering to pretend I know what I'm looking for?_

The orange-masked turtle sighed heavily, as he glanced back down at the table again. He was immediately distracted from the physical lines on the paper, by some stray particle that had been cast by the wind. As he dusted off the edge of the page, he noticed a faint outline of numbers and degree markings that he'd hadn't seen before.

The turtle's heart skipped a beat. He didn't know how to read them, but he was fairly certain he knew exactly what they were supposed to represent.

"Doc." He said swiftly, grabbing the man's shoulder since he was the closet to him. "Look at this. Look, and tell me what you see."

Luke took the paper from him, squinting a little to make out what the turtle was trying to show him.

"Marc, hand me that magnifier, will you?" He requested instantly, in a tone that stopped the entire table at once.

"What is it Luke?" Karina asked him. "What did you find?"

"Hold on." The man replied. "Just one second..."

He paused for a closer look, holding the glass directly above the numbers. "Can somebody write these down for me as I read them off?"

April already had a pen in hand, so she scribbled down the numbers quickly as Luke fired them off.

"What is that, is it supposed to be the longitude/latitude?" Marcus could hardly stay seated as he asked.

"That's sure what it looks like." Luke replied. "We need to get these numbers plugged into the mapping system, see if it pulls up the existing property."

"That's a great find Luke." Tim commented. "Nice work."

The doctor cast Michelangelo an appraising smile. "I wasn't the one who found it."

* * *

Confirming the location of the complex didn't turn out to be a difficult thing, and it spurred April back on to her own personal project of finding Stolle's network with new fervor. The woman had only been met with discouragement on her previous search attempts, but now that they had a building to work off of, she was all the more determined for some kind of evidence that they were _there_.

She settled behind Donatello's laptop for what was surely the thirtieth time, and signed into Lilah's network at the Technology Center. She'd been through so many various feeds over the last two days, scanning without any prior success to find Stolle's own back-door, which they were all hoping could grant them access to his own system.

That is, until he realized that he had company. The thought of Stolle discovering her presence inside the network and shutting her down again, was the thing she actually dreaded more than anything else as far as the computer was concerned.

_Just like before_, she thought ruefully. _But I do have to at least get __in__ there first. I should have already found his gateway by now. I swear, I'm not getting up again until I do._


	38. Manipulator

*** Lilah is a big fat LIAR. **

* * *

The red-banded turtle had finally fallen into a deep sleep that morning himself. When he jolted awake that afternoon through the act of being covered in some unidentifiable substance, his groggy response was to curse his youngest brother's name. The instant he tried to move however, he was reminded of where he actually was. Raphael started to try and open his eyes, but was met by a sharp stinging sensation that made him think better of it.

"C'mon Heffernan, that's a good boy. Up and at 'em."

He heard one of the men taunting the human, who was presently choking so hard it sounded like he was going to get sick. A surge of anger rose to the surface as the turtle forced his eyes open, regardless of the pain. A dangerous snarl erupted from deep inside, which only succeeded in eliciting laughter from a couple of different directions.

Lewis smirked at the turtle, as he hurled the remainder of his bucket over Raphael's head. "I'm sorry - I didn't realize that you were still hungry."

The contents weren't really one thing or another, merely a combination of several elements that made the turtle want to gag. When Raphael felt someone's hand under his chin, he took a blind snap at it, surprising even himself when he captured the offending limb.

Two pairs of fists descended on him at once to force him to let go, but the brutal rain didn't cease the moment the turtle released the man. Lewis swore at the turtle between their blows, even as he cradled his badly bleeding left hand.

"You've earned you and your buddy a few more hours in lock-up." He fumed at Raphael, swiping something across the turtle's eyes so that he would be able to see what happened next. "Along with a little something extra, for your own enjoyment."

The man turned in Greg's direction, as Raphael desperately fumbled with the links of his manacles. He knew where Lewis was going with this. The wretched human reached for his nearby rifle, twisting it over in his hands to use for another purpose altogether. He turned it on Greg like a club, striking the Agent at least five times between the stomach and rib cage. Then he yanked his head back up fiercely by the hair, and leaned in close to the man's ear.

"Still with me Heffernan?" Lewis asked the straining man. "Be sure to thank your friend over here."

Lewis released his grip after a moment, and let his head fall without an ounce of gentleness. "We'll catch up again later." He assured the pair, as he left the cell with the other two men..

A tremendous cry of frustration shot out of the turtle, as he raged uselessly against the bonds again.

"My sentiments exactly." Greg added, shaking his head in an attempt to at least get some of the junk out of his eyes. "Aw that's foul. Feels like eating tar."

"Heff, I'm sorry." Raphael said immediately. "If I hadn't done that, they mighta let us down."

"Forget about it." The man told him. "Did you actually get a piece of him? I couldn't see a thing."

What almost sounded like a chuckle came from Raphael's direction. "Neither could I - it was a lucky shot."

"Well, I would have killed to do the same thing." Greg informed him, shivering as the cold mixture made it down his back.

Raphael growled something indiscernible under his breath, as he wondered how long they would actually leave them like this. "If we get out of here...I ain't never complaining about _Mikey's_ pranks again." He muttered.

The thought of his orange-masked brother made him sigh inwardly. While he was relieved he'd managed to escape, he couldn't imagine how Michelangelo had to feel out there on his own.

_But he's not alone, he's got Luke, and the girls..._His thought trailed off slightly as Karina flashed through his mind, following a sensation of longing that was so deep it shook him to the core.

He felt Greg's gaze, and glanced over to acknowledge the human a moment later.

"I hardly think it's time to make promises that you can't keep Raph." Greg said ironically, and the turtle had to relent.

"Yeah, okay...I won't complain as _much_." Raphael allowed, a certain note of anxiety tracing his tone. "I'm sorry we got ourselves caught Heff. And the others...they're not gonna quit either. They'll either find us, or they'll die tryin'."

Greg didn't say anything for a long moment, taking a sharp breath that revealed the raspy quality that Raphael was feeling so concerned over.

"We really just need some lousier friends." He finally told him, making the turtle shake his head at him.

The man looked down for an instant, and then went on. "There are things, that are hard to say...until you come to a certain place. Raph, no matter what happens to me, I'm glad I chased you guys to Hillsboro."

"It's too early for _you_to be talking like that Heff." The turtle tried to admonish him, but it came out more frightened than he wanted it to.

"I'm just...trying to tell you, it's gonna be okay. It is. And that I've been happier in the last year, than I ever remember being before."

"I told you not to give up on me."Raphael said sharply.

Greg gave him an exhausted smile. "Don't ever change Raph, no matter what anybody says."

* * *

Donatello's struggle to keep his eyes open into the second late evening was becoming an all-out battle. He was practically seeing double by now, a curious sensation that made him feel extremely off kilter. The turtle started to swallow behind the gag, but felt so dry that he couldn't actually accomplish the motion. He sensed movement from behind his half-closed brown eyes, and fought instantly to open them all the way.

Donatello stared up into the face of a stranger, a somewhat menacing individual with a length of chain wrapped around his arm.

"Nick of time turtle." The man commented, as Donatello released a short breath behind the tape.

He remembered this guy now, for how his chosen weapon had felt across the burns on his chest if nothing else. But the human's gaze wasn't particularly threatening right now. It seemed more curious than anything else.

"That guy Williams, there wasn't hardly a mark on him, besides the obvious. You took him out with _one_ hit, didn't you?"

The question was clearly rhetorical, and Donatello couldn't have responded to it, even if he wanted to.

"You must have some mad skills. Nobody will be taking any chances with you again, I guarantee it."

_I never thought I'd be wishing someone would underestimate me, _the purple-banded turtle thought regretfully.

"We should have known there was a reason for the extra security measures," The man remarked. "But most of us just figured that it factored in with Stolle's paranoia. _Brother_ was he paranoid - just not about the right things."

_What's made you so talkative all the sudden?_ Donatello couldn't help wondering.

"I can't tell you how ready I am to be out of this stink-hole region. It's reassuring to know that the process has started. The sooner the rest of you are dead, the sooner we can go home."

Donatello heard the man's statement, but what he actually _said_ didn't strike him until an instant later. _Rest of you? _

"But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Lilah wants the privilege of telling you all about it. You be a good boy, and don't tell her I said anything, okay?" He finished smugly, and turned his back on the turtle before he could see how wide his brown eyes had just gone.

As if on some pre-arranged cue, the blond woman came through the door a few seconds later.

"Good evening Donatello." She said pleasantly enough, as if the turtle were actually no more than a guest in her home. "You've had a long silent day I imagine. I'm sorry I couldn't come to see you sooner, I've been so busy."

_Yes, packing the rest of your bags for the witches convention no doubt._

Lilah pulled over a chair to sit down beside the turtle, and lightly toyed with the knot of his mask. She saw the disgust flash through his eyes when she touched him, and laughed softly.

"Most people will try and tell you that there are a lot of fish in the sea, but that's not the case with you, is it Donatello? It's never been anymore than the _one_. The girl you're so willing to allow to suffer, so that you don't have to. You know, in a way, I do believe I'm doing her a favor.

Reality would have eventually set in, and everything she gave up to follow you would have come back to haunt her. She's good at pretending, isn't she? But deep down, you have to realize that she longs for more, what every girl wants and deserves. A chance to live, to be free out in the open, nothing to hide, nothing to complicate the normal way of life.

Nothing is normal with you Donatello, and it never could be. For her to learn that now, while she's still young...I think it's a gift. She may have been willing to give up everything for you, but it doesn't mean she should have to. No one should. You believe that - I _know_ you do."

He didn't falter from her gaze, his expression remaining completely stoic.

"But I'm not really here to talk about Jenna. I have something for you, that I thought you might like to hold onto. It would probably serve as a nice memory, for the next few days anyway."

The woman motioned behind her for someone to increase the lighting, and dropped a piece of tattered fabric on the turtle's chest. Where it wasn't stained crimson, Donatello could tell it was the signature blue of his oldest brothers'.

"I'm afraid Lewis got a little carried away last night. I can't actually blame him. He was bound and determined to have someone's blood, and when I wouldn't let him touch you, he wandered elsewhere."

She had the turtle's full attention now - he didn't even seem to be breathing as he hung on her every word.

"He didn't beg or break down - I suppose that should make you happy. He seemed intent upon dying with _honor_."

What oxygen remained inside his chest felt like it had been sucked out completely._ No. No she's lying, she has to be. It's not true, I would have felt something, I would have known! He can't really be gone - this is just some sick game she's trying to play with me._

Lilah smiled evenly at the disbelief displayed in her captive's brown eyes.

"I knew you'd find it hard to accept," She said quietly serious. "So I decided to provide something as proof, for your own closure. You're going to have to speed your way through the grieving process, you don't have much time to get through it."

The woman brought a hand-held scanner into his line of sight, after recalling an image on the full color monitor that the turtle was certain would forever be emblazoned on his mind - however long that might be. His oldest brother's body was twisted at an unnatural angle, covered in and surrounded by more blood than Donatello had ever seen in one place. Much more than any creature could ever stand to lose, and still survive.


	39. Chance

Leonardo had been completely bewildered when he'd come around earlier that day, with a pounding head and extremely stiff muscles from the position he'd spent the night in. The loss of his mask (while it seemed insignificant in the scheme of things) made him feel almost as naked as being without his katanas. But the blood had been the truly unnerving part, waking up to being surrounded by more than could _possibly_ have been his.

He'd spent the better part of the day just trying to get if off through the sink, and pondering what kind of message someone was trying to send him. Or more likely, what kind of message it was supposed to send someone _else_.

Katherine had been silent for the most part. Much of the regret and sorrow that had consumed her up to that point was fading slightly into the background, as she'd resumed running through some stretching exercises. She hadn't pushed it too hard; her energy level had already taken a huge hit from the fact that she hadn't eaten in almost three days. But something in the action of performing familiar motions and patterns she'd learned over the last several years actually served as a small comfort to her mind.

_As long as I have breath and energy, it's not over_, she'd reminded herself. _We still have a shot, an opportunity to act._

When she opened her eyes out of that thought, she found Leonardo gazing her direction from across the room. The turtle had sensed the defiant will rising up inside her again, and he couldn't help giving her a small smile as she rose off the cold floor.

"You're different." He said plainly. "I don't know what happened, but it's nice to see you again Kat." Leonardo told her tongue in cheek, referring to the fact that she looked so much like her old self.

"It was last night Leo." She replied with a certainty, as she walked closer to the bars so that her voice wouldn't have to carry as far. "Watching Lewis hurt you, it just...something snapped. I'm not ready to grieve, or to give up. _You _still believe we have a chance, don't you?"

He nodded firmly at the woman. "As long as we're alive, hope can't be completely _dead_. I just wish I knew what was happening outside of here. I don't like not seeing Stolle...it puts all these ungodly scenarios into my head." The turtle finished, a little less strongly than he'd started. "What do you know about this woman Kat? Did you and Greg dig up anything on her?"

"There wasn't information readily available in the database, which indicates that she doesn't have a criminal history. But then, we didn't expend all the resources that we could have either. She had me Leo, hook, line, and sinker - right from the first time that I talked to her. I used to think I was so good at reading people."

Katherine was about to continue, but the ominous sound of the main door being flung open made her instantly shut her mouth. She stood stock-still for a moment, but then stretched to see who was approaching them. She'd been holding her breath to see Stolle or Williams, the latter of which had still been weighing on her mind since their last encounter. But it was the _new_ object of her intense annoyance that revealed herself a moment later.

"Good evening you two." Lilah greeted calmly. "Leonardo, it's nice to see you up and around."

He stared back at the woman wordlessly, crossing both arms across his plastron.

"Is this your attempt to portray the strong silent type?" She chuckled.

"You're not_ exactly _like him you know." Leonardo told her. "It's something about the eyes. Your emotion still comes through sometimes, whether you want it to or not."

She smiled at the turtle tolerantly. "I see. You've been trying to compare Daddy and me side by side."

"Just noticing the differences." He answered. "I don't know why you'd _want_ to be like him."

Her expression remained unchanged. "I wouldn't read too much into your own intuition Leonardo. You don't see as much as you think you do."

The turtle didn't say anything for a moment, and then took a step closer to the bars containing him. "Why haven't I seen Stolle yet?"

"That man has a mostly one track mind," Lilah said carelessly. "He's been very occupied with your younger brother."

_Donatello. NO._

The pit that instantly formed in his stomach made him feel like he could throw up. While the turtle stared slightly into space, Lilah had pulled out a small device, and took a few moments to check something on the monitor. A different kind of smile altogether appeared, as she beckoned Leonardo to come as close to the front as he could.

"Isaac designed this hand-held piece to give him the freedom to tap into the monitor feed, no matter where he was." Lilah explained to the turtle. "What that means is, I have the power to choose from any of the given camera angles that I desire to see, and call it up here whenever I want it. I thought you could be interested in how things are going with Donatello."

She made an adjustment on the screen to sharpen the chosen image, and then held it up toward him.

Part of Leonardo didn't _want_to look at it, but he did. He saw his brother's outline, strapped down almost identically to the way they'd found Raphael when they'd rushed in to save him from Stolle the first time. His younger brother's chest was heaving uncontrollably, muffled sobs just barely audible from behind layers of tape. His agony was clear in every line of his face.

Lilah pulled the device away from his sight, laughing at the way Leonardo shuddered openly. "It took several hours, but Isaac _can_ be patient when he has to be. It's a very satisfying feeling Leonardo, I can't tell you how much I enjoyed watching most of it. It's a pity you couldn't be there to see him break, but you'll get your own turn soon enough, when Isaac gets tired of him. It might take awhile, so I hope you're patient too."

Leonardo was now firmly gripping bars in either fist, furious adrenaline rushing through every muscle. "When I get out of here - and I WILL - no power on earth will stop me from getting to _both_ of you!"

"Cling to that hope Leonardo," She said coolly. "Maybe it'll help you hold out a couple more days."

The turtle's infuriated cry echoed through the hallway after her as she left the room.

Katherine ventured back to the front her own cell a little shakily, and stared across the room at the turtle, whose head was now braced against the bars. "Leo, he...he didn't manage to kill Raphael." She wavered slightly.

"Because we got to him in time. Barely." Leonardo said weakly, then banging his already throbbing forehead against the door. "_Dagone it_!"

* * *

Tim had been in the dining room for a couple of hours, making furious notations on top of several pages of schematics, hardly seeming to be aware that anyone else existed for the moment. He was trying to prepare for the inevitable, while sincerely wishing he had information the number of men and weapons they could be walking in on.

He had a lot of experience serving in tight spots, but this was going to be entirely different than anything he'd been involved in before. He couldn't help wishing he had some real back-up right about now. Tim had a lot of respect for the skills of the others surrounding him, but _none_ of the humans were truly cut out for this style of ambush. Michelangelo would have been a huge help, but his current vulnerability made it incredibly dangerous for him to be involved. One wrong blow could take him down completely, and give these people exactly what they wanted - which was to have all four of them.

It was an irritating feeling to know where they could possibly be, but not have an idea of how to rescue them, especially with the diminished physical condition they were probably in. Tim threw down his pen in sudden frustration, and dropped his forehead into his hands as he braced both elbows on the table.

_This feels impossible. If all the brothers were here, I could see it happening, but this..._He didn't finish the thought, raising his head a few seconds later._ It doesn't matter. Whatever the consequences we have to try something, and God knows they won't let me go alone._

He pulled a photograph out of his pocket, worn and creased with years of age, and stared at the image as if it were actually looking back at him. _No matter what anyone ever said, I always believed you could still be out there. I'll probably never know now._

"Tim." An outside voice called him back to reality, and to the fact that Marcus was standing in the doorway between the dining room and kitchen. "April found it. We're in."

Timothy darted upright from the table. "Completely inside? Don't mess with me right now."

"I wouldn't do that. April's scanning through their video feed as I speak. You might wanna come in here."

* * *

The sun was on the edge of the horizon, as everyone gathered together in the family room. The girls had even taken the time to corner the sleepy miniature pinscers, so that the orange-masked turtle would come inside without hesitation.

"They're small dogs Mikey." Luke pointed out. "I really think that you could take them."

"Maybe that's true, but there's like 500 of 'em." The turtle replied, not really wanting to waste the breath on them for the moment. He turned immediately to April instead. "Have you found all of them?"

The red-head nodded slowly. "Yes, um...there were a lot of angles of get through. I can confirm what we already knew, which is that the guys are all alive. But now we've got visual proof of Katherine and Greg too. Almost all of the views are closed circuit, no kind of audio. The only exception is the room that appears to be their security center." She added hesitantly, and then gazed across the circle at the mixture of anxious and hopeful faces.

"I think...the best thing to do right now, is for me to continue to familiarize myself with the deterrents they have in place, and hope that Stolle doesn't realize we're in here. I'll _have_ to shut things down, if we're to have any chance of getting in there undetected. But he keeps such a close eye on his network...that was the point where he discovered us last time. I'm not capable of defending myself the way that Donnie is. If he kicks me out, that's it."

"April, you have to get some sleep too." Marcus pointed out insistently.

"He's right." Tim spoke up. "And we can't act in the daylight regardless, even if we _did_ already have a plan in place. Which we don't."

"We can't wait forever." Mike said anxiously, imagining that the look in April's eyes in that moment was probably mirrored in his own. "How do they look?" He hated to ask, but couldn't stop himself.

The woman shook her head, refusing eye contact. "It...it's hard to tell completely." She said, obviously faltering for words. "But they're alive, and that's the important thing."

"That's all you're going to tell us right now, isn't it?" Karina said at once.

"For now."_  
_


	40. Never

Raphael wasn't about to complain about being turned loose from the manacles, or of the badly needed shower, but being shot by an energy rifle had angered him just the same. He'd come around on his shell under a strong blast of cold water a few minutes later, completely unable to move almost anything. The turtle had shut his eyes tightly against it, silently enduring the spray for the trade-off of getting clean. He didn't have a real choice in the matter anyway.

An obvious thought occurred to him after a little more time had passed, and he intentionally gulped down what he could get, savoring in the relief that it offered his thirst. He managed to swallow an additional three times, before two pairs of arms yanked him across the wet tile floor, and away from the shower head.

"Welcome back Red." Someone laughed, as he kicked the turtle directly in the mouth.

Raphael's growl was only half-hearted for the moment - he was actually more concerned with what these guys had possible done with Greg. The arms dragged him off the floor, his full weight hanging slack in the humans' grasp. Once they had him up, the turtle caught sight of his friend, being firmly supported by two additional men.

"Free time's over." The same one from before informed Raphael.

"Yeah, time to get back to your_ cage _animal." His second captor patronized.

_If I had proper use of my muscles right now, I'd __show__ you an animal, _Raphael seethed inwardly.

The turtle kept his eyes open wide, trying to catch a glimpse of anything significant after being carried out of the room. The interior hallway didn't seem to be entirely lit, so that he was having a hard time even making out the faces of the men controlling him. Raphael heard Greg hit the floor of the cell a few feet ahead of him, gasping through a rattling breath painfully.

His own captors hurled him down on his plastron, and Raphael heard the cell door slam shut behind them.

"Raph!" He heard Greg call softly, and knew that the man had to be trying to struggle upright, even though the turtle couldn't physically turn to see him.

The human ended up not even attempting to get to his feet - he simply crawled across the cement to get to the turtle. He was soaking wet too, trying to control his own shivering as he fought to get Raphael onto his back.

"_Raph_." He repeated breathlessly. "Are you alright? Can you move anything?"

"Not yet." The turtle replied with a small grimace. "What about you?"

"Cold but...it's nice to be free. In a manner of speaking." He told Raphael, and had to pause before going on as another coughing fit took him. He bent over the cement, to avoid letting the turtle see the blood that came up with it.

"Are you feeling worse?" The turtle pressed him.

"It's not going to get better Raph." Greg said honestly, now more quietly than before. "Sorry. I know you don't wanna hear that."

"Heff, you're gonna hang in there, aren't you?" Raphael said a little pleadingly.

The man didn't make eye contact with him. "I'm not as strong as you Raph - not physically, _or_ mentally."

"You're _plenty _strong." The red-banded turtle insisted. "Don't talk like that."

Raphael felt the pressure of Greg's hand on his shoulder, silently trying to reassure him.

"I told you, it's gonna be okay Raph."

* * *

He'd lost control, but he was honestly too numb to care about that fact at this point. Donatello had hardly even _felt_ the blows from the chain that had whipped across his frame, the last time he'd succumbed to exhaustion for a few seconds. He didn't open his eyes immediately, allowing it to come down several times before he dutifully responded to it.

"...No, he's still awake Ma'am." He heard one of the men telling Lilah in the background, who clearly had to be within earshot as well.

Chocolate brown eyes stared apathetically into space, not so much as stirring into focus as the woman came over to join him. She wiped blood from a fresh wound on his arm, in a gesture that could have passed for actually caring, if it had come from someone else.

"Moving along nicely now, aren't we Donatello?"

_Woman, if you don't get your hands off me..._

"You had to realize that it wouldn't last forever - the four of you together that is. You had a pretty good run though, didn't you? You got to play the heroes for several years. But it was going to come to an end eventually, surely you expected that.

I've been thinking it's about time that I called that friend of yours', Dr. Sloan? I can only imagine how your friends must feel, being completely cut off from the center of their universe. You and your brothers have been their obsession for years, haven't you? You effectively brought their entire lives to a stand-still. Well, at least Marcus still makes an attempt to live in the real world, in addition to yours.

But Dr. Barrows on the other hand...he's been lost for years. If there was ever a more pathetic waste of a human life than my own half brothers', Luke would fit that bill. Still, I'm looking forward to meeting the man in person. I've been saving Katherine specifically for him." Lilah finished.

The mind-numbing grief that had consumed every nerve up to that point, lost part of it's hold on the turtle in that instant. _What am I doing? I can't just lay here and write everybody off. I won't do it!_

With a muffled deep breath, he tried to maintain his outward composure, and not give away the surge of protectiveness that was rising back up inside of him.

"Are you quite thirsty enough Donatello?" The woman asked in a friendly way, as he glanced her direction for the first time.

Using part of her nails, and then employing a pocket knife, she worked to free one of the sides of duct tape from his mouth.

"Do you want it badly enough to ask nicely?" She said with a smooth smile.

A slight rumble in his throat didn't sound encouraging.

"It's up to you of course. But you'd better make up your mind pretty quick here." Lilah warned him.

_Now isn't the time to be prideful_, he admonished himself severely. But it still took every ounce of will he had left to force out the single raspy word.

"Please."

"What did you say? I didn't quite catch that." The woman said maddeningly.

The rumble automatically got louder, but her hand was already threatening to simply cover his mouth again.

"_Please_." He forced out louder, flushing with both anger and embarrassment simultaneously.

She allowed him a few drops from the bottle in her hand - nowhere near enough to actually satisfy him. When the deed was done, Lilah firmly replaced the tape, and gave his cheek a condescending pat.

"I like it when you just listen to me." She told him lightly. "It's so difficult to get people to shut up sometimes, and getting them to slow down, and take their time, it's even harder. You know what I'm talking about. The impulses of many a man has ended in their own demise. Take your Agent Heffernan for instance. He hasn't been with you that long, has he? He was never even supposed to know about you. But like many men, he acts faster than he thinks, and jumps in before he realizes the true depth.

I fear he'll be the next to depart us Donatello, though it won't require the effort that it took on Leonardo. It seems the Agent is ready to see _himself _out of this world, all on his own. Though he's not actually alone right now, your other brother, Raphael - he's with him. I _like_ the idea of him watching his friend die, at least enough that I'm willing to hold off on his demise for the moment.

It's an interesting process, watching someone suffer slowly that way. You probably don't know what that's like. Oh, you've seen people die before your eyes, had a hand in it on occasion. But there's a different sensation to seeing something instantaneous, as opposed to a slow descent. I want you to have the opportunity to distinguish that difference first hand. Raphael, I think, I will save for you, much in the sense that Heffernan is being used for _him_.

It took tremendous will-power to maintain the outwardly numb expression, and the fact that the turtle still had it in him was a little mind-blowing. Seeing his oldest brother in his final stage had rocked him so severely that he hadn't been able to put a coherent sentence together in his already jumbled thinking. The natural response was a strong desire to curl up in a ball and die himself, but as much as the pain still throbbed inside of him, the image of the _others_ was resurfacing.

Donatello forced the blank look to remain in his eyes, hoping and praying this woman would buy into it. The weaker she considered him to be, the better chance he had of being underestimated; to being given a shot at doing something to help the pieces of his family that remained.

_She doesn't know everything_, he thought, as he focused very hard on a certain spot on the ceiling. _Not that it would make a difference if she did. I've never seen someone suffer before? Please. I watched the bravest creature on the planet, face down his own impending death for months, and manage not to lose himself one bit. And I don't intend to dishonor __his__ memory, by allowing you to destroy me completely._

_You can take my life, and annihilate everything that's ever mattered to me. I can't stop you. But I swear, you'll __never__ take me._


	41. Storm Watch

Michelangelo had been digging through the back of the Battle Shell for the last hour and a half, helping Timothy take stock of all the supplies that might be of assistance.

"Donnie liked to keep a good number of explosives, in addition to the simple smoke bombs, which really aren't good for anything except creating a kinda screen effect. We're looking at about two dozen grenades, between the concussion and the flash. Donnie designed 'em, he said they were 'spose to be...low impact. We're not exactly in the business of blowing stuff up, but they could create some serious chaos and mayhem. Is that the effect that you're going for?" Mike asked Tim.

"I don't want to consider attracting that much attention, unless we have no other choice." The man replied a little grimly.

"You _said_ the place is isolated." Michelangelo pointed out. "You've got a better shot of staying under wraps out in the country, than we did back in the city or suburbs."

"It's not the _outside_ attention that I'm mostly concerned with." Timothy said honestly. "From what April can tell...we've got at least twenty on the inside, give or take a couple. That number coincides with the teams that swooped in on you that night at the Technology Center."

"When I left my brother to be captured and tortured." Mike muttered under his breath a little darkly, and Tim immediately reached for his shoulder.

"Hey, I can't guarantee you anything here Mike. I'm not gonna lie to you - it doesn't look good. But we're going, just the same."

"I should be with you." He said stubbornly.

"We've been through this Mike. You're entirely too valuable for us to risk losing, and we can't afford to put all of our eggs in one basket. That's the whole reason we've been talking along the lines of splitting up. But it still goes against all my sane judgement to have civilians in there period, let _alone_ one of the girls."

The orange-masked turtle snorted out loud. "Trust me Tim, of all the humans at your disposal, Jen's probably got the best arm, and she's seriously ticked. You're better off not fighting it, 'cause she'd just end up inside anyway. Didn't anyone tell you how things finished up in Hillsboro?"

"The question is whether or not she'll listen to me."

"She'll listen Tim, long as you come across strong enough." The turtle assured him, and ducked his head out of the back of the van for a breath of fresh air, simultaneously swiping beads of sweat from his forehead. "Who flipped the summer switch? It's burning up out here." He complained.

"The humidity is at some obscene level Mike, it makes it feel hotter than it actually is." Tim told him. "So how _do_ these explosives work exactly?"

"They have different...detonation levels, that's what he calls it. You can arm it the normal way, which would make it go boom pretty much instantly. But you can also plant them like charges, and set them off when you choose. You need the remote for that though." Michelangelo finished partially to himself, as he turned back toward the inside to search for it. "I've never armed anything to go off that way myself, but I'm sure Donnie's got some kinda instructions on his laptop."

As Tim rose to help him look for the remote, the turtle glanced back to catch his eye again.

"I know why you don't want me inside first - but I still don't agree with it." The turtle said plainly.

"Mike, you've gotta look at it this way. If everything else fails, then you'll still be free to act."

"I enjoy being the last ditch resort." He said sarcastically.

"You know none of us think of you that way. There's just no sense in risking your shell getting hurt or caught, unless we don't have another choice. We've been through all this already. Extensively."

"Yeah, I'm sort of wasting my breath here." The turtle said a little glumly, and then gave Tim another serious glance. "What about the um...the guns?"

Tim had brought a couple of cases of his own supplies from the city, and fully intended in using them if he needed to.

"We'd be insane to go in there unarmed." Timothy said. "You know we won't use them without good reason. Speaking of which..." He cut himself to groan. "I'd better get out to see Luke and Jenna, get something in their hands to make sure they're not going to shoot their own foot off or something."

"Luke _has _firearm experience." Michelangelo spoke up.

"So I've heard. I hate the idea of arming them, but we can't go in with bare hands alone either."

As Tim started for the back doors, the turtle noticed that the human had his hand inside his pocket again, an action he'd noticed him repeat several times over the course of the day.

"Is this a 'nerves' thing, or is your hand just cozy in there?" Michelangelo asked him.

"Uh, no, it..." The man faltered slightly, then withdrawing his hand, along with the picture he'd been subconsciously clutching off and on. "It's just a photo, I always carry it with me."

He held it out in the turtle's direction, and Mike took it from him. The blonde-haired teenage likeness that stared back at him was surprising to say the least.

"Who's she Tim?"

"Her name's Calley, she was...she's my daughter." He admitted after a moment.

"You have a _kid_? Tim, you can't just...what happens if..."

"I _had _a daughter Mike, the chances are...I don't know if she...That picture's about eight years old, and I haven't _seen_ her in seven." The man paused for a beat at Michelangelo's questioning glance. "She ran away, a few months after her Mom left. Things were already going down-hill before that, but after Sharon split, it was like I lost all control overnight. Not that I had much to begin with. Calley had been falling in with the wrong crowd in Jersey...and the more I tried to pull her back, the more she wanted to dive in.

I transferred to the city because of her. I always had this feeling, like she'd ended up somewhere in New York. But every year that passed, less people would ask, or even dare to talk about it. It's like they're afraid to even speak her name anymore. I know the general consensus is that she's probably dead...but I didn't want to accept it without physical evidence."

"_Dang_ Tim, this changes things." The turtle wavered. "You shouldn't be risking your life this way."

Timothy took the photo back from him, and shook his head resolutely. "I'm not backing out Mike. I can't walk away now, and I don't want to."

* * *

April had been tired enough to force about four hours sleep, before returning to her vigilant post at the computer.

Marcus was swift to meet her at the table. "You should eat something." He encouraged her.

"I don't have time to think about it." She said glibly, as she maneuvered her way onto the linked network again.

"What is it with you tech people?" Marcus asked with a sardonic smile. "You really think you can keep running on empty?"

She gave him a quick glance over the top of the screen. "If you're making, I'll eat it."

"That's all you had to say." He said lightly, and turned back toward the kitchen.

The sight of the increasing cloud cover outside the kitchen window caught his attention again, for the second time that hour.

"It's starting to look like we might be in for it." He commented, to no one in particular.

Sarah was just lugging two bags in through the back door, with Jenna and Michelangelo behind her.

"The wind is seriously picking up. I don't think the tent would offer viable shelter tonight - not that we'd be using it anyway." Sarah said in response.

"Is anyone else hungry?" Marcus called as the room filled up.

"Keep it simple Marc, but everyone should definitely eat." Tim replied from his perch in the family room.

When Sarah heard the first distant rumble of thunder, she reached for the television remote. "I'm just gonna put it on something local, so we have a handle on what's going on."

It came on to a commercial, and she dropped the remote on the couch beside Luke. "Here. I'm gonna go check on the dogs upstairs, make sure they have enough water. I'll be back in a couple."

The woman had been upstairs for maybe thirty seconds, when a voice was calling up after her.

"Sarah, what county are we in?" Luke wanted to know.

"Miami. Why, are they saying something?"

"Just a thunderstorm watch. What about Greene county, where's that?"

"Greene is south from here, south and east. Why do you want to know?"

"They've got a tornado watch."

He heard what sounded like an absolutely humorless chuckle from her direction.

"Xenia is a tornado magnet. When we're in for bad weather in this neck of the woods, they seem to usually get the worst of it."

"The _same _Xenia that we tracked down Stolle's building to?" Luke said in slight disbelief.

"Unfortunately, it's the only Xenia around here. Hang on, I'll be right down. We'll probably want to keep an eye on this."

"Oh, you think? How often does this happen?"

"They had their last major tornado in 2000, it was pretty late in the season. Look, don't panic yet, okay? This is the Mid-West, we get tornado watches all the time in the Spring and Summer. Nothing serious ever comes from most of them."


	42. Warning

Leonardo had struggled through a terrible night after his last encounter with Lilah. Every time that he closed his eyes, he had horrible mental images of his younger brother, suffering under Isaac's hand. Despondency threatened to overwhelm him a number of times, as he clawed to hold on to some shred of hope that they could still make it out, and Donatello wouldn't be permanently injured as it seemed Raphael had nearly been.

Dread was such a useless emotion, and he hated wasting any time on it. It was in direct opposition to so many of his Sensei's teachings through the years. As he had laid wide awake that morning (ironically around the same time that the others on the outside had gotten their first look _inside_), he was trying to quiet his spirit once more, and imagine what his Master would tell him if he were here right now.

_Be in the moment, but still ready for the next. Don't make assumptions about what your natural eyes can't see..._Leonardo instructed himself, forcing a deeper breath to try and establish a more relaxed state.

It wasn't an easy task under these conditions, even if his mind wasn't already consumed by so many things and fears. There was no way of finding a truly comfortable position in this cell, not that he was tempted to complain. As he started to sit up yet again, a curious sensation traveled across his skin, which would have made his hair stand on end, if he had any.

It brought with it a sense of freshness to the air, that made him immediately want to breathe it in. It left him feeling buoyed inside for a moment, right before an intense wave of weariness washed over him. The turtle leaned heavily against the wall, barely mustering the energy to keep his eyes open.

_**Rest. You've got to rest, **_an unbidden thought urged him.

Leonardo wasn't going to fight it. He surrendered right in the same position he was already in, falling into a deeper sleep than he'd yet experienced since the day they'd found out that Katherine and Greg had been taken. He was going to need it.

* * *

Donatello's cognitive thinking was in shambles by now. He didn't even have the presence of mind left to continue forcing himself to stay awake, so that the insistent rain of blows had to increase in frequency. Sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep - he craved it more than anything else at this particular moment. It had gotten increasingly harder today, as his conscious mind had started losing it's grip on reality. Hallucinations had followed, like nightmares that he couldn't escape from. He couldn't escape, because he was already awake.

Moments of lucidity slipped through his fingers like sand, as the vestiges of reason tried to surface time and time again. But as the hours had worn on, and afternoon turned into evening, the turtle had no choice but to completely succumb, as his brain automatically directed remaining energy to more vital of organs.

****

_Heat, unbearable heat seemed to be bearing down on him from every direction at once. He was trapped as in a black-hole, a vacuum of nothingness - nothing but the sensation of burning, consuming every inch of his skin. The turtle opened his mouth to scream, but no sound would come out, even the necessary oxygen to expel the sound didn't feel present in his lungs._

_Out of the utter blackness, the fire that he'd been feeling all along was taking physical form now. It leaped up around him in great columns of flickering flames, that could have stretched for miles into the air for all he knew. He was being overcome by the __scent __of burning now as well, as the acrid smoke settled completely over-top him like a massive cloud._

_A distinct howl distracted him from that fact, and caused him to force his head upright, and see through the smoke to where the sound had come from. Directly through the sheet of fire, darkness took shape in the form of large figures, which would have to have been at least seven feet tall. They were completely shrouded at first, so that Donatello couldn't make out any distinguishing features. But their very presence inspired such terror that the turtle couldn't help shuddering in spite of himself._

_Faster than the turtle could even blink, they were beside him; much more quickly than he'd ever seen any living creature move before. They had him surrounded on three sides. In one simultaneous motion they unfurled great wings, that then stretched out to the sides until they were actually touching one another._

_Amidst their canopy the veil of smoke was lifted, so that he could actually see them. Their physical bodies (if they could be called that) seemed human in some sense, but their other facial features were far more complex, extremely animalistic in nature. The glowering expression mirrored between creature to creature was one of hatred, a powerful force of combined loathing more terrible than the turtle had ever felt._

_One of them bent over Donatello, so that he got an even more terrifying close look of the beast he had no desire left to see. Long nailed fingers that vaguely resembled claws in a sense stretched out to touch him. Where the thing laid a palm on his chest, he had a sensation of instantaneous frostbite. While the rest of his body still raged with heat, the bone-chilling freeze was settling over his entire plastron._

_As the first had yet to actually remove his hand, the other two were suddenly brandishing whips. The odd material flickered as though the weapons themselves were on fire, yet they were not consumed. They were only waiting the signal to use them._

****

It was the loudly repetitive tone that broke the turtle out of the awful vision, bringing him back in that moment to the reality that was _actually_ reality. The muffled cry he'd been unable to grasp for earlier now leaped into his throat, as his entire body trembled on the chair. No, there weren't any winged hateful creatures, no flames ready to burn him alive on the cursed chair he was strapped down to.

The tone that had rescued him from the living nightmare was repeating itself, and now being followed by a computer generated recording. The words weren't clear to him, and he didn't have the necessary mind-power to even distinguish what they could possibly mean. He laid his head back down on the chair, and stared silently into space as the message droned on without him.

"_...The National Weather Service in Wilmington has issued a Tornado Warning for...Central Greene County, until 7:30pm EST...At 7:09 EST, the National Weather Service Doppler Radar indicated a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado, traveling northwest over Interstate 75, moving at 60mph...Cities in the projected path include Hamilton, Monroe, Lebanon, and Xenia...Citizens are urged to seek shelter on the lowest floor of the building, in an interior hallway or a closet...Get under a workbench or another piece of sturdy furniture, using blankets or pillows to cover your body, and stay away from windows and doors...If inside a mobile home or vehicle, evacuate to more substantial shelter. If no shelter is available, lie flat in a ditch or other low spot, and cover your head with your hands...If you observe severe weather or weather related damage, report it to the nearest law enforcement agency, and ask them to relay it to the forecast office in Wilmington, Ohio. Repeating. The National Weather Service in Wilmington has issued a Tornado Warning..."_

* * *

It had been a struggle to get moving at all for Raphael, even after he'd re-gained the use of his limbs earlier that day. Now he was working his way slowly to his feet again, staggering across the cell with muscles that were still painfully contracting. He held onto the sink firmly with one arm, as he cupped his other hand under the faucet, to get as much water down as he could.

Raphael stood up straight then, wavering as his balance still felt shaky. He cast a look over his shoulder back at Greg, who was still propped up in the same position against the wall that he'd hadn't so much as moved from in the last three hours. The turtle backed into the wall, and slid down to the floor beside him, with the sudden urge to shake the man's shoulder.

Greg didn't respond right away, but after a few seconds, his eyes flickered open. "Mm?"

"Heff? I think you ought get some more to drink." The turtle urged him.

"I'm tired Raph." The man mumbled softly.

"No, now _c'mon_. You can stay awake. I'll help you, alright? You need to get up."

The incredibly loud sound of thunder overhead made the turtle bolt upright with a jerk, and even caused Greg to come around a little more.

"Holy shell." The turtle sounded a little breathless. "That sounded like it was right on top of us."

He glanced back at his friend, and reached out an arm to help him sit up further. "You ever heard anything that loud Greg?" Raphael pushed him, just as an attempt to keep him awake.

"Sure Raph. I 'member...this one time. James and I were on assignment, in Florida. There were storm warnings for days about a hurricane...but we decided just to ride it out. It was pretty intense."

Greg slumped slightly against the turtle, as another round wheezing assailed his chest, and his eye-lids ended up heavier than before. Raphael wrapped an arm around his back, as the man sank further against him. The turtle had a brief mental image of his Master that threatened to bring emotion to the surface, of getting as close to his Sensei as he could on the couch when _he_ couldn't sleep as a youngster.

The turtle cast an appraising glance at the man beside him, facing the sobering reality that he was in really bad shape.

_No one should have to die this way. He doesn't deserve this...it was never about him to begin with. Oh God, this isn't __fair__!_

Raphael was broken out of that thought by another immense roll of thunder, and caught himself glancing overhead again.

_If I could see outside, maybe I could tell how far away this storm actually is. But I don't see how it __could__ be far away, and still be that loud. Donnie could probably figure it out without having to see the lightning, but I'm just--_

The turtle cut off mid-thought again, as he heard another sound, beyond the lingering rumble of thunder. He strained to listen, cocking his head as if it would actually help him to hear better. It sounded like wind, but he had the feeling that he shouldn't have been able to hear it that loudly from where he was.

Presently it increased in volume, reminding him more of a roar now. The turtle shook Greg immediately.

"Heff, wake up! Do you hear that?"

The man nodded, but didn't open his eyes. "Mmhm."

"What is it?"

"Don't know." He said so quietly, that the turtle couldn't actually hear him over the wind.

Raphael's grip on the human tightened, as the light fixtures above them shook, and the roof of the building quaked. His ears inexplicably felt like they were popping, as the roar became almost deafening. The turtle instinctively buried his head, and then leaned as far over Greg as he could, just in case something actually decided to fall or cave in under the tremendous pressure.

The lights failed as the power was obviously knocked out. They were cast into complete darkness and unknowing, as the monster continued to rage overhead. Raphael had no idea how long it really lasted - it felt like several minutes to him, but he guessed it was significantly less than that. He could tell it was starting to move away from them, though he could still hear the wind as it retreated.

He found himself still breathing very hard as the sound faded, and he gripped Greg tighter once more, as if to assure his own mind that the human was still there, though he couldn't see him.

"Greg?" He finally said aloud.

"Yeah?" The man's response was clearly a little dazed.

"Ohio sucks. I wanna go home."


	43. Window

Nicholas Sharp was standing transfixed at the window, watching as the monster continued its' course across Route 42. His whole life he'd dreamed of seeing one, and getting to view the storm in all of its' fury was a very surreal experience for him. He watched until it started to fade from his line of vision, then turned from the window a little regretfully.

"Sharp? What are you _doing_?" Lewis demanded from the doorway, flashlight in hand. "Did you even take cover?"

"That wasn't a direct hit." He answered matter-a-factly. "Those winds we got were only the updraft. It came awful close, but we'd be looking at another story altogether if that thing had come down on top of us. It was so incredible! I saw it crossing the road, and it had to be at least half a mile wide. I'd kill to know the wind speed. We were _that_ close to it!"

"You sound a little too excited about that." Lewis said disdainfully. "You're out of your mind kid. Put a lid on the enthusiasm, and come with me. We have a little problem with the power, if you're not to busy to notice."

Nicholas didn't say anything else, but couldn't keep the smile completely off his face as they slipped back into the darkness of the hallway. They'd only made a few strides, when an audible tone over Lewis' radio indicated someone trying to reach him.

"This is Lewis, go ahead." The man responded.

"What is your current position?" A distinctly female voice returned over the radio.

"I'm in the south-east corridor, I've located our tech in one piece. We're heading for Observation." As Lewis finished, a couple of the emergency lights flickered on above them. The man gave Nicholas a quick glance. "Is the generator coming on?"

Sharp stood still for a moment, as if listening. "No...no it doesn't sound like the back-up has kicked in, at least not the main one. We've got a smaller unit that can power some of those lights, and that's pretty much it."

"Why don't we have our main one?"

"I couldn't tell you sir, I've never even laid hands on the thing before. Stolle's training with me centered on computer based modes of security, not this mechanical junk behind the scenes." Nicholas replied.

"I guess you're gonna have to get a crash course then." Lewis said sarcastically, and took him firmly by the shoulder to get him moving again.

* * *

The two men stopped by the Observation Room first, where several others were being outfitted with radios and flashlights. When Lilah saw the pair she waved them past everyone else, and called Nicholas to her side.

"We've got about a dozen radios, enough back-up batteries to prolong the life for most of them, until they could be charged again. We also have a decent back stock on the kind we need for replacing the flashlights, so we shouldn't have an issue in that respect either. I've sent some men outside to take some assessment, but we need to focus on the immediate situation at hand as well. Namely, the containment of our prisoners is my most valid concern." Lilah told the man.

"You don't need to worry about them Ma'am." Nicholas said quickly. "They aren't going anywhere. You remember don't you, that the magnetic seals are completely independent on any form of electricity? There's no reason for them not to remain intact."

"Yes, Isaac explained the feature perfectly well to me, but I still don't like the prospect of operating blindly here. I'll step up guard shifts on the perimeter in the meantime, but we need to get at least minimum security back online as soon as possible. I want you on that back-up generator, it should have been working already."

Nicholas swallowed inwardly as he followed the woman out of the room, as she led the way towards Maintenance. He hadn't figured out how he was going to explain to her that he doubted he could fix anything that was wrong with the generator. He simply kept his mouth shut for now, as they traveled through the semi-darkness with Lewis hemming him in from behind so that he felt even more trapped.

_How did something so amazing, suddenly get so frightening? If I can't get it working, there's no telling what she'll do..._

They reached the Maintenance area much sooner than the young man really wanted to, but Nicholas went straight toward the generator, hoping that it could be something incredibly simple.

One glance at the inner workings after removing the back panel killed all hope of_ that_. He swore severely under his breath, and Lewis heard it even though he hadn't meant for him to.

"What are you looking at?" The man asked him.

"There must have been a bad surge from the lightning, because this thing is _fried_. It makes me wonder..." Nicholas trailed off slightly, as he turned to the smaller machine only feet away.

When he took a closer look, he breathed out a deeply anxious sigh. "I thought so. This one's damaged too, no telling how long we'll keep even the lights we've got."

"That's why we have _you_ here." Lilah announced from the doorway, nearly making Nicholas jump out of his skin. He'd had no clue that she'd stuck around.

The young man stared at the impossible projects in front of him, and then slowly got to his feet. "Ma'am, I...I'm not an electrician. I've never done this kind of repair before. I'm in computers, that's basically it. Stolle could take a pair of tweezers and some twine to fix anything in this place, but I'm not him."

"Take another look." She said coolly, and motioned for Lewis to join her in the hallway.

Outside, she shook her head in irritation. "They had another touchdown within city limits, power outages are extremely widespread. There's a lot of storm related damage, that didn't even come from the twister itself. It could be awhile before crews get out this far to where we're _alone_. Priority goes to emergency, and to population." Lilah told Lewis quietly.

The man seemed to be considering something carefully. "The turtle, the one you've got back in Observation? I'd bet money _he_ could fix the generator, with the right incentive of course."

"I like the way you think - unfortunately, he's not up to that sort of mechanics. Perhaps with a few hours sleep he might be able to see straight, he's clearly been out of his mind all day. It doesn't really help us for the moment. Make a mental note Lewis. We need to pick up a crew member with a much wider angle of ability as far as technology is concerned. Nicholas just isn't up to snuff for me."

Inside, the young man had been listening for whatever he could hear of their conversation, a cold chill descending over his spine at her last statement. _Brother, I'm dead._

* * *

The caravan including the Battle Shell, the Avalanche, and the Cavalier had left West Milton, almost immediately after they'd received word of the first tornado touch-down west of Route 42. Tim was the one driving all their actions at this moment, as everyone else seemed to be in a state of semi-panic. He'd split everyone up between the vehicles in the teams that he meant for them to operate in, directing April and Karina to ride in the Avalanche with Marcus, while he and Jenna were holed up in the Battle Shell being driven by Luke.

Timothy had asked Michelangelo to ride with Sarah for an ulterior motive of his own. He knew very well that it would be difficult to prevent the turtle from trying to take some form of action on his own, and he hoped that by pairing him with the woman, the turtle might be more occupied with looking after her than running off to try and start something.

Tim cast an inquisitive glance at Luke, reading the nerves in every muscle of his body, even the way he was gripping the steering wheel. Luke's eyes were fixed on the road, but he seemed to sense Tim's gaze.

"Are we doing the right thing?" Luke asked uncertainly. "With all this atmospheric stuff going on...I don't know. This feels like a bigger risk."

"You're looking at this the wrong way Luke. This is the best break we've had so far." Tim replied.

"Explain that to me please."

"Think about it with me for a second, okay? From April's prying back into the network, we know that the power has to be out. That means that their security net is down too, without us being forced to do a single thing about it. There's never been a better window for us to sneak in there, completely undetected. On top of that, if the tornado _did_ pass close by them, there could be a lot of distractions currently in our favor as well."

Luke swallowed sharply, and then asked what was really weighing on his mind. "What if it hit them? What if something spins back up? There are still watches for this whole area."

"The building is solid Luke, and the holding cells are on the interior of it. If they took a hit, their chances are pretty good for coming out unscathed."

"We already _know_ they're not unscathed." Luke muttered. "I watched them for hours today while April was resting, until I couldn't look at that darn screen anymore. I'm scared of what we're going to find Tim. More scared than I actually am of going in there." He finished honestly.

* * *

They stopped about a quarter of a mile from the Compound, pulling all of their vehicles off the road into the cover of some trees and brush. Tim called everyone to come up close to the Battle Shell, so that they could hear him all at once.

"Once we have a good idea of how much surveillance they're keeping on the outside, we'll let you know whether it's safe to move the vehicles in any closer." Tim said first to Marcus. "Use caution, at all costs. Getting yourselves entangled would only complicate things further."

"Are you still planning on going in from the east?" April asked him.

Tim nodded his head. "Where we actually end up breaking in will rely entirely upon who's watching, and where. With security down this way, our access points become even more numerous. You all _do_ understand why this is best chance we have to attempt this? Even though we had means by which to shut down their systems before, as April pointed out, it probably wouldn't have gone unnoticed. In all likelihood, this is also the last time that they'd be _expecting_ an ambush. That's why we have to move now, and not wait for the outside conditions to be perfect."

He gave Luke and Jenna a wary glance. "I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I'm counting on you two to _follow_ me. We're going to have a lot of opportunities to screw this up, and we don't need to add more on top of it."

That said, he cast another look at Michelangelo. "Mike..."

"I know." The turtle said flatly. "Stay out of it, unless you say so."

"I'm sorry." Tim said sincerely. "You deserve this shot, more than anybody. But things being what they are--"

"Yeah, I _know _Tim." He cut in. "Ya'll should probably get a move on, before it starts raining again." The turtle said quickly, and then turned his back on the humans completely. He didn't want them to see the terror that the idea of them putting themselves in this much danger inspired.


	44. Opportunity

Although Leonardo had no idea what the situation actually was on the outside, he'd sensed the impending concern of the two individuals who'd been by their room _before_ the winds had struck. Now it was deadly quiet, an unnatural silence that felt foreboding in itself. Something significant had happened - that much was obvious.

Leonardo and Katherine called back and forth to each other for the few minutes while they were shrouded in complete darkness, eager to keep some semblance of contact alive in the unsettling conditions. Then one emergency light had come on, just barely illuminating the space they were in. But it was better than the pitch black, and brought a small sense of relief to both the turtle and the woman.

Kat was quite certain that it had to have been a tornado, the thought of which didn't make Leonardo feel any better. Fear for the others plagued both their minds, as they imagined the possibilities of the damage of the winds could have caused elsewhere. It had been an hour since the storm had raged overhead, when their main door popped open again. Both Leonardo and Kat scrambled upright in the same instant, hoping to get some answers.

As Leonardo squinted in the low light, he recognized the form of the man coming toward him, remembering him for his age. He was definitely the youngest of all the others that the turtle had seen. He also happened to recall one of the other men referring to him as something of a "technical" individual.

"What's going on out there?" Leonardo asked him boldly.

"Nothing that concerns you." Nicholas replied somewhat dully, shoulders slouched in what already seemed to be a defeated posture.

"Was it a tornado?" Katherine demanded from her own cell, but the young man didn't even pay her any heed.

"Pointless, that's what all this is." Nicholas muttered under his breath, as he shone the beam of his flashlight over Leonardo's magnetic seal. "I _told_ her they were intact. Magnets don't fail, like so many other things."

"You mean like the power?" Leonardo asked with a slight edge.

Nicholas didn't say anything to him in return, as he continued the calibration test on the polarity of the mechanism keeping his door locked.

"You're supposed to be one of the _smart _ones, aren't you?" Leonardo edged closer to the front of the bars slowly. "You wanna tell me what the problem is here? Your genius Stolle can't get his own equipment to work? That must inspire loads of confidence." He scoffed at the young man.

"You don't know anything turtle. Just shut your mouth, or I'll shut it for you!" Nicholas declared, showing Leonardo the weapon at his side.

"Sounds like I'm hitting on a nerve." The turtle pushed him further. "Guess you're _both_ not as clever as everyone thought, are you? You ought give my brother a shot, he'd probably run circles around you." Leonardo snorted derisively.

Nicholas came directly up to the bars to face the turtle down, exactly the way Leonardo had hoped he would.

"I told you to shut up! I'll show you h--""

The young man's phrase was cut short, by two distinct actions that happened faster than he ever could have anticipated them. One green hand shot through the bars and wrenched his wrist severely, sending his gun to the floor with a terrific clatter. The turtle's other hand went instantly to Nicholas' throat, as Leonardo yanked him firmly against the bars in a threatening manner.

The turtle's dark eyes seemed to pierce cleanly through him, as the kid flailed helplessly in his grasp. Leonardo had intentionally not clamped down as hard on his throat as he could have to start with. The idea was to gradually increase the pressure, to leave a more lasting impression.

"Give me the keys!" The turtle demanded of him, carefully pronouncing each word.

Nicholas tried to shake his head, but was unable to move his neck at all by now. With wide-eyed fear vividly displayed across his own features, he couldn't find the ability to tear himself away from Leonardo's glare, or get the image of Williams' broken body out of his head. The purple-banded turtle had killed the man, attesting to the obvious reality that this turtle could easily do the same with him. As he rapidly tried to calculate options in between trying to breathe somehow, the turtle drew him hard against the bars a second time.

"_Give me the keys_." Leonardo repeated more softly, but somehow more dangerously than the first.

Slowly, Nicholas released the useless grip he'd tried to take on the turtle's arm, and held the hand out at his side for a few instants, as if signifying his surrender. He lowered it under the turtle's watchful gaze, and snapped the keyring off of his belt.

"Toss it in here." Leonardo ordered the trembling man, maintaining the darkest expression that he could muster. "You know I've got absolutely nothing to lose here - your bosses want me dead anyway. So help me, I'll do what I have to in order to get out. Now hand them over." Leonardo continued as the young man hesitated a beat.

Without another pause, Nicholas sent the keyring through the bars of the cell, and it hit the floor behind the turtle. Leonardo let it lie for a moment, immediately lessening his grip so that the man could actually breathe, but didn't let him go yet.

"My family, are they alive?" He asked him.

"Y-yes." Nicholas gasped. "She hasn't killed any of them - I swear!"

"You said _she_- but what about Stolle?"

"He's dead!" Nicholas replied under duress. "Lilah shot him...days ago."

"Either you're lying, or she is." Leonardo said stoically.

"I'm not! She's the dangerous one, she's gonna kill me too!" The young man cried, as his expression suddenly changed to a different level of desperation. "Kill me, just do it!" He pleaded of him. "She will if you don't - just finish it _please_!"

Leonardo shook his head a little sadly at the young man, right before ramming him into the bars so that his head made contact with the metal. When Nicholas slumped in his grip, he let the man down to the floor slowly.

"Get on those keys Leo!" Katherine shot from across the room. "That was incredible!"

"I almost feel sorry for him." Leonardo admitted as he scooped up the ring. "But he knew what he was getting into. Let's see here."

He fingered past the useless keys, until he found the desirable metal rod.

"Oh please, let this work." He grunted aloud, as he reached through the bars, maneuvering it over the magnetized seal on the other side.

He listened carefully for the sound of the release, lowering it a bit further when it seemed like nothing was happening at first. Both he and Katherine held their breath for the next few seconds, until the lock suddenly gave way.

A relieved laugh escaped the turtle as he yanked the door open, and darted across the room toward Katherine. The woman's smile could have just about lit up the rest of the room, as he got her door released a few moments later. Katherine's arms went around him tightly for an instant, as she continued grinning from ear to ear.

"I _told _her I'd get out." Leonardo said a little darkly.

"Don't _ever_ let anyone make a liar out of you Leonardo." She said tongue in cheek.

"I have a feeling the next part is going to be a little harder." Leonardo replied, as Katherine reached down to the ground to retrieve Nicholas' gun, and then noticed his radio.

"Isn't that handy?" She said to herself. "Here Leo, why don't you hold onto his radio? It could give us a heads' up on their movement. What do you want to do with the him?" Katherine indicated of the young man.

Leonardo grabbed him around the chest, and dragged Nicholas back into the cell that had been imprisoning_ him_. He felt the strain in his muscles at the action, grimacing inwardly as he acknowledged that he wasn't running anywhere close to full strength. Then he handed the keyring off to Katherine, and gave the woman a serious look.

"I'm not all here Kat - and I don't want you going down with me. If we get in trouble, I want you to try and get out. You have to promise me that, before we even walk out of this room."

"I won't promise that." She replied stubbornly. "We're in this together, whether you like it or not. It's going to take our combined effort to have any hope of saving the others, so don't even think about trying to force me to bail out. It's not happening."

A slight glare appeared for a moment, but then he sighed in resignation. "Alright...together. Let's see what we've got left to work with physically Kat."


	45. Jail Break

The three humans had been inside the Compound for roughly ten minutes, having broken in through a window on the east corridor that wasn't illuminated. Tim had advised the others to keep their flashlights off for the time being and simply stay right on his tail, to prevent more opportunities for beams to be picked up in the darkness.

They stole silently through what seemed to be a mostly abandoned labyrinth of hallways, seeing no one as of yet besides the men that had been patrolling outside. Tim was grateful for that fact, but still incredibly on edge. The halls had been slightly lit in some places, vaguely flickering in others, while yet a few had been cast in complete darkness. Clearly _something _wasn't operating correctly here.

Around the cover of another corner, Tim held up his hand to stop the other two. "Can you check on our progress Luke?" He whispered to the man.

The doctor withdrew his scanner, punching a button to bring up the display. A couple more keystrokes returned the image of the map they'd designed from the building's schematics. "We still need to get more west. There's another passage coming up, should be about twelve feet on our left. It might be taking us closer to guards, but we're going to have to go that route eventually anyway. It's the only way to get to the interior of the building."

"Alright, try and keep track of where we are at intervals, will you? But stay right with me, and keep it down." Tim told him, then glancing back at Jenna. He wasn't able to tell how the woman was actually functioning through the masks that they'd all donned.

"Are you calm?" He asked.

She simply nodded, and motioned for Tim to continue leading them.

The man kept his flashlight trained downward for the most part, as they worked their way further inside of the complex. He knew that the others had to be getting more nervous behind him, and if he was being honest with himself, he felt it too. The hand that was gripping his assault rifle had progressively tightening over the last couple of minutes.

Twice they managed to bypass or wait out a lone guard, followed by a pair not long after, choosing not to outright engage them. Tim had it in his head not to so much as reveal their presence to anyone, unless they had absolutely had to. They'd passed into another section of the hallway that was entirely unlit minutes before, and Tim had to bring his flashlight up a little further to see what was actually ahead of them.

As they approached the blind curve of the next corridor, someone launched directly at the man, almost before he even realized what was happening. Both weapon and flashlight hit the floor, as unbelievable pressure pinned him down by the chest. His attacker had sensed the movement of Luke and Jenna behind them, and when he noticed the glint of gun metal in the beam of the flashlight still shining from the floor, he cried out a sudden warning to someone on the other side of him.

"Kat, _watch out_!"

The command stopped the advance of the other two instantly, and a stunned Tim spoke up as quickly as possible before the turtle could dispatch him.

"Leo, it's _us_!"

The turtle dropped his fist with a sharp breath, as Katherine scrambled for the fallen flashlight. She barely managed to hold it steady as an unbelieving Leonardo yanked off Tim's mask, and stared at the man as if he were an apparition.

But the other two humans were frozen in place no longer. Luke tore off his own mask and dashed toward his wife, having the distinct need to actually touch her before he could believe she was actually in front of him. Her arms immediately went around his neck, as she clung to him for a few seconds for all she was worth.

"Oh Kat...Kat..." Were the only words he could possibly muster as she held on to him.

But there was no time for relaxing yet, so she finally forced herself to let go, even though she didn't want to.

"What are you _doing_ here?" She couldn't stop the words from leaving her mouth.

"We're here to rescue you." He said ironically, as Leonardo was pulling Timothy off of the floor.

"I'm sorry - I didn't see you." The turtle was truly apologetic.

"You could have fooled _me_." Tim grinned. "Are you alright, both of you?" He then asked more seriously.

"Sort of." Leonardo answered. "Neither of us are running on a full tank - but I feel better than I have in days. Jen, is that you?" He asked suddenly.

"Were you expecting the Easter Bunny?" She asked with a wave.

"Yeah, about as much as I was expecting to see_ you_." He said honestly, arms encircling the woman fondly. "Don's gonna kill you when he finds out you came in here."

"Not if I kill him first." Jenna replied sarcastically, and then cast a swift look up the hallway. "Perhaps we shouldn't linger?"

"Definitely not." Tim responded. "Since you guys saved us the trouble of springing you, we need to change up directions, head back toward the other holding area."

* * *

Raphael was feeling lower than he could remember feeling in a long time. He couldn't stand the helplessness of having to watch his friend suffer this way. Every passing hour, breathing seemed to take on a more agonizing effort from the human, as he'd continued to go down-hill. Raphael wasn't able to completely fight off emotion anymore, as tears threatened for the fourth time in the last few hours. Greg was splayed completely in his lap now, and hadn't been verbally responding to anything that the turtle said or did anymore.

In between the desperation Raphael was feeling, anger still flared up intermittently in white hot bursts. The red-banded turtle wanted to break something. That was his method, his answer for dealing with so much of his pent-up emotion and rage. Just sitting here waiting for the inevitable was the worst torture that he could possibly fathom.

_I'd rather Stolle had his filthy hands on me right now, than be facing down this. Why'd it have to be __him__? _Raphael thought morosely.

The turtle heard the familiar echo of the main door being opened a few seconds later, and lifted his head with a growl.

"You finally comin' to grab a peek of the dying?" He hollered angrily. "Get lost before I break your face!"

"That's no way to talk to a lady Raph." A familiar (but completely unexpected) Australian accent greeted him, and raised a flashlight his direction.

The turtle didn't believe his ears weren't playing tricks on him. "What the shell?! _Jenna_?"

"Nice to see you're holding up to your old self." She said calmly. "Give us just a minute, we're gonna get you out of there."

"WE? Who's we?" He had to ask.

"Oh you know, the usuals." Luke spoke up from beside her, the metal rod in hand to break the seal of their prison like Leonardo had told him to do.

"How'd you guys get here?" Raphael still couldn't accept that he wasn't dreaming.

"We drove Raph." Luke said a little maddeningly as he got the door open, and swiftly entered. "Are you okay?"

"Forget me, you gotta help Heff!"

The doctor came to kneel at their level, reaching for Greg's wrist. "Has he been unconscious long?"

"In and out, the last couple of hours. It kept getting worse, please Doc, you've got to do something!"

"I'm on it." Luke tried to assure the turtle, and grabbed his scanner to get a better idea of what the man's vitals were actually doing.

As he started analyzing Greg's situation, Leonardo ducked inside the room, leaving Tim and Katherine to keep watch on the door outside. As he shouldered his way inside the cell, Raphael's amber eyes widened at once.

"_Fearless_!" He proclaimed in relief, as he struggled to get his feet completely under him again.

Leonardo tried to help him, and the two met in a rare outward display of affection, that Raphael didn't even care if the others saw.

With a shaky breath, Raphael held his brother at arms' length so he could get a good look at him. He was missing his signature mask, and he'd obviously been roughed up badly, but the same determined light still resided behind those dark eyes.

"Man, it's good to see you bro. Is Kat..."

"She's alright," Leonardo said immediately. "She and Tim are keeping watch."

"Then we got everybody....everyone but...Donnie." Raphael's balance wavered slightly, and he felt his brother's arm trying to offer some support to his faltering frame.

"We got this far Raph. So help me God, we're going to get to him." Leonardo said with a certainty.


	46. Strategy

"Greg is definitely in the worst shape Marc, he's got advanced pulmonary edema, due to multiple traumas I'm sure. He's got a tremendous amount of fluid backed up in his lungs, he just needs a hospital as soon as possible. I think an Oxi could help him hold out a little longer, but if hypoxia has set in far as I think it has, he won't be able to continue breathing without getting mechanical intervention soon...No, the guys have been worked over severely, but at least they're on their own two feet...I'm not sure about that."

While Luke was quietly conversing over the phone with Marcus on the outside, Leonardo, Raphael, and Tim were having a discussion of their own nearby the door.

"There were maybe a dozen or so guards on the _perimeter _of the grounds, which I think is what made it easier to get through here unseen so far. But I have a feeling that our luck isn't going to hold out. It's only a matter of time before they realize that someone's missing." Tim told the turtles grimly.

"And it ain't finished." Raphael said with a slight growl. "We gotta find Donnie."

"According to April, they've been keeping him under closer supervision, inside some room that serves as their security center." Tim replied.

"Yeah, I woke up there too, it was the last time that I actually saw 'im. Stolle was there, he had big plans for hurting both of us, but he didn't get the chance." Rachael told them both.

"What happened Raph?" Leonardo asked. "That guy I manhandled, he said _Lilah_ killed him."

"Heff was great, he managed to get me loose right before Stolle was gonna start in on me. I got a hand on him briefly, but then I got taken down before I could finish it. I wasn't awake for any of it, but Heff said she acted like she was gonna shoot him, and then turned the gun on Stolle instead. Apparently things weren't as 'friendly' between 'em as we thought." The red-banded turtle explained.

"We need some kind of strategy here." Tim said quickly. "Our best hope thus far was to go unnoticed, but we can't continue to count on that. In all likelihood we're going to run into serious confrontation before this is over, and I for one would like to make sure that everyone has the chance to get out. But we're carrying a lot of...collateral with us, which makes the situation even more complicated, even if we leave out the glaring fact that we're out manned _and_ outgunned."

"That's true Tim, but _they_ don't know that." Leonardo said pointedly, drawing a look from both Timothy and Raphael at the same moment.

"What are you sayin' Fearless?" Raphael asked.

"You've got your grenades set up so that they could detonate by remote, right?" Leonardo continued. "I'm saying that there's probably a way that we could make it _sound_ like we're bigger than we actually are. These guys are cowards, and if we could get them to go for this, it might end up being like rats on a sinking ship."

Tim nodded, as if understanding where the turtle was going. "We'd need to get the devices planted..."

"I'm thinking something in like a circular pattern, make them feel like they're surrounded, completely boxed in. Then we don't touch them until the time is right, and keep moving quietly if we can." Leonardo added.

"We shouldn't stay here any longer." Tim said. "If we can get you guys holed up somewhere else temporarily, it would give me time to actually get some grenades in place around the two surrounding corridors. I have a feeling everything is going down in this section."

"We've gotta get a move on in any case." Raphael said impatiently. "Who knows what they've been doing with Donnie? I don't care if they're all waiting outside in a line to try and take us out. We've gotta find him NOW Leo!"

* * *

Luke and Jenna handled Greg between the two of them, urging the turtles to conserve as much energy as they possibly could for the moment. Katherine had been briefed on the plan, and took approximately thirty seconds to convince Tim that the two of them should split up, so that they could get grenades into place faster. Tim wasn't entirely comfortable with the proposition, but felt better about using the experienced Agent for the task, instead of one of the support people that had come inside with him.

The turtles were no happier about the situation, but agreed to wait on their own several doors down from the holding area, and keep a watch over the other humans. Raphael stood tensely by the door, listening, straining to hear whatever sounds could be possibly echoing down the hallway at any given moment.

"I hate waiting. One of us ought be out there Leo." Raphael fumed.

"Just hang on Raph." Leonardo said softly. "We're going to get to him, I swear we are."

"You can say that again." The red-masked turtle said determinedly.

Tim and Katherine had been gone for almost ten minutes, and everyone was getting more nervous as the time passed. Leonardo had been fingering the radio he'd taken off of Nicholas, when a rather panicked transmission broke the anxious silence.

"Observation, this is Cooper and Soin, we have a break out! Repeat, we have prisoners missing from the inner 9th corridor, both the turtle and the woman!"

"Well that was nice while it lasted." Raphael stated sarcastically. "_Now_ what Fearless?"

"I'm calling Tim." The turtle replied, deftly dialing Luke's phone. "We have to try and wait for them. Jen, will you see if you can reach Katherine?"

Raphael was swiftly getting worked up. "They'd better be close by! You know the guard's next stop is gonna be to check on me and Greg! Darn it, we shouldn't have been just sitting here this whole time! I ain't leaving here without Donnie!"

* * *

"Lewis, relax." Lilah was trying to soothe the man somewhat. "They aren't leaving without Donatello, I guarantee it. They're still contained inside the building, and they can't be in any condition to do any serious fighting. We'll pull all the men off the outside perimeter, and take down the corridors in sections. They haven't gotten far."

In the aftermath of the tornado and the effort to get some kind of power back up, Donatello had finally fallen asleep unnoticed, and unaware of anything that was going on around him.

The next call that came over the radio made Lilah smile even more confidently. "There now, you see? They have the Agent already, and the turtle won't be far behind her. He can't hide forever." She said to Lewis, and then turned to the radio in her hand. "Very good - bring the woman and Sharp back to Observation." She ordered.

"Do you want me to handle that kid?" Lewis spat angrily. "I'd go double or nothing this was somehow his screw-up. They found him in the turtles' cell!"

"I prefer not to kill an insect, until I'm certain I no longer require his function Lewis. We'll keep him for the moment - but you'll get your hands on him soon enough."

* * *

Leonardo and Raphael were both waiting tensely for Tim to get back down the hall, after hearing the last transmission over the radio that Katherine had been seized.

"I ain't waiting much longer Fearless!" Raphael stated through clenched teeth.

"Raph, we're not leaving anybody behind!" Leonardo assured him as strongly as he could, but he couldn't help seriously missing the weight of his katanas right that second.

They heard footsteps coming their direction, and the doorknob was suddenly turning, without the pre-arranged signal Tim had promised them. Both turtles flattened against either side of the wall adjacent to the door. Raphael was in better position so that he got his hands on the human guard first, yanking him further into the room where he could deal with him properly. The motion didn't go undetected by his partner, who instantly leaped through the door, only to be met by Leonardo's fist.

Shortly thereafter they heard footsteps again, and both crouched, prepared for another fight. But this set was accompanied by Tim's audible signal, and they quickly looked out the door for him.

"What the shell is going on?" Raphael demanded. "Where were you?"

"I tried to go after Kat." He said a little breathlessly, anxiety evident. "I expected the worst when she didn't answer the phone. There were too many of them. Several of the units are converging on the rest of the building. Luke, can you get us up to Observation quickly?"

The man was clearly shaken, but nodded firmly. "I know where we're going from here."

"Then we need to move. I'm pretty sure Kat got all of her grenades down before they found her. Regardless, we have to move forward." Tim said, and cast a swift glance at the turtles. "There's a good chance that right now would be the best time (if any) for you guys to get out of here."

"Huh uh, no way." Raphael said at once. "We're getting out together, or not at all. No more splitting up."

"He's right Tim, we're not leaving." Leonardo added, looking back over at Greg as he did. "You're going to need all the help you can get to save those two...and Greg wouldn't want us to abandon anyone."

Their minds were obviously made up, so Tim made no attempt to dissuade them further. "I'm going to set off the first round of six grenades, and then we can head that direction."

* * *

The sound of the explosions settled something in Lilah's mind without question - the turtle was not alone. Without wasting any more time pondering that thought, she immediately caught Lewis by the shoulder. "How close are the other teams?"

"They ought be nearly on top of us by now. We have a good amount of firepower Ms. Stone, we should be able to overcome whatever comes this direction." He told her.

Lilah shook her head sharply. "I'm not staying, I won't repeat my father's mistake."

"Which mistake was that?"

"Waiting around for them to come to _him_." Lilah replied, not even bothering with a dirty look.

"So you're just gonna run?"

"_We're_ going to run Lewis. I'll allow the teams to make a stand here. If they're able to hold their own, very well, but I'm not taking that kind of chance. There's a hidden passage at the back of Maintenance, it will lead us back outside."

"Hold up, if we're leaving, can't you at least let me kill the turtle first?"

"NO, you idiot! He's coming with us!"


	47. Ruse

A sharp slap to the face roused the sleeping turtle, who opened extremely unwilling eyes in return.

"You're missing all the action." Lilah pointed out to him. "You might want to be awake for this, because we're going on a little field trip."

The look in Donatello's eyes was almost catatonic, and she wasn't sure if he even understood what on earth she was saying to him. The woman ended up turning back toward Lewis, as he dropped two pairs of magnetized manacles on the chair. He freed the turtle quickly from the chair's restraints, and as Cooper pulled his limp form upright somewhat, Lewis snapped his wrists and feet back into manacles.

Around that time, several of the men had arrived on the scene outside the door. Two of them had entered Observation with an unconscious Katherine, and Lilah directed them to lay her down exactly where Donatello had been moments before.

"We're getting this turtle somewhere more secure," Lilah told one of the new men. "Dunagan, you're in charge of this room from here on out. Crush anything that comes this direction. I'd keep the woman alive for insurance purposes if I were you, but I have no further desire that anyone or any_thing_ survives. I'll be in touch."

She jerked a hand over her shoulder to indicate that it was time to get moving, and Lewis and Cooper followed her out of the room with the purple-banded turtle supported entirely between the two of them.

Donatello was vaguely aware of their presence, the feeling that someone was carrying him, but everything else was a complete fog of details. He understood instinctively that he was in danger, but it didn't seem to actually matter much anymore. The sight of a horned shadow ahead of him made him cringe, and instantly shut his eyes tightly. 'GET AWAY' was all he wanted to cry out, but all that escaped him was a deafened whimper.

Lilah picked up speed as they got closer to Maintenance, and definitely heard the sound of further detonations. "Hurry up you two!" She ordered them fiercely. "There's not much time!"

* * *

"I ain't going along with this Tim!" Raphael insisted. "There's no way we're letting you three go ahead of us. How is being dead going to help anything?"

The man laid a firm hand on the turtle's shoulder. "Do you trust me Raphael?"

"You're not in charge of us, and it's not your job to go down in a blaze of glory!" Raphael seethed. "We won't sit back and watch that happen. Am I right, or am I right Fearless?"

"Raph, I don't think you understand what he's asking." Leonardo tried to reason with him. "He's got a plan here, and it doesn't actually involve us splitting up at all. Nobody's leaving anybody, it's just the opposite. We really shouldn't waste time. Will you give this a shot, or do we need to stand here and debate about it for another twenty minutes first?"

The red-banded turtle growled under his breath. "I just wanna say, for the record, that I don't like this."

* * *

Marcus answered his phone on the very first ring, he was so eager to hear something from the inside. "Talk to me!"

"We're going after Donnie and Kat." Leonardo said on the other end. "The guards are off the perimeter, so go ahead and move in closer. I'll call you again in twenty minutes, unless...unless I don't." He finished plainly.

"If you don't call us, I might be turning my _own_ car into a guided missile!" Marcus threatened.

"Wall crashin' is _Jenna's_ thing Marc - don't jump the gun on us, okay?"

"Then you'd better make sure you call me back." The man said flatly. "And watch your shells!"

He hung with the turtle a moment later, and glanced over at April and Karina behind him.

"It's coming down to it - Leonardo said for us to go ahead and move in closer." He told them.

"How did he sound?" Karina asked.

"Fairly confident. I'm going to call Mike real quick, give him an update too." Marcus replied.

The orange-masked turtle answered the phone just as quickly as the human had. "What's _up_?"

"They're trying to finish it Mikey, and Leo asked me to move in closer. I don't know how that applies to you and Sarah, he didn't get specific. All he said is that he'd call back in twenty minutes."

Michelangelo glanced over at the woman a little hesitantly. He knew full well the possibilities for things to still go very wrong, and the last thing that he wanted was for her to get mixed up in any of it. "Just go ahead." He told Marcus mechanically. "We'll wait the twenty minutes back here, but if he doesn't call, let me know."

"Right, I'll keep in touch." Marcus answered, and hung up.

Michelangelo sighed anxiously as he clapped his phone shut. "Okay, this is it. They're either gonna pull this off, or...Well, they have to pull it off. We're going to wait back here a little longer, but the others are going to move in closer."

Sarah nodded without a word, nervously tightening her grip on the steering wheel as if to release some of the anxious energy.

The orange-masked turtle was feeling nowhere near as calm as he'd tried to portray to Marcus over the phone. His older brothers were in danger, he _needed_ to be with them! _I can't believe I let myself be forced into this_, he fumed inwardly. _No way I should be sitting here waiting - none of __them__ would do it!_

His glance landed on Sarah again, and in the dim light he could tell that her mouth was moving, but no sound seemed to be coming out.

"What are you saying?" He asked her.

"I'm praying Mike."

"Oh. Well carry on then." _They're gonna need it._

* * *

The team inside was just around the corner from Observation, and Tim took a careful glance around the bend confirm the three men that were standing outside of it.

"I'd bet there's more in the room itself." Tim whispered to the others, as he flattened back against the wall again. "It's almost time to finish this up. Leo, will you take the remote from me now?"

The turtle took the detonation device from his outstretched hand. "Raph and I could draw those three off." He suggested. "Create some kind of distraction, and give you a clear path to the room."

"Then you're going to need these too." Tim said, suddenly producing a couple of the simple smoke bombs for him.

"Alright, you three stay out of sight, and we'll get their attention." Leonardo said decisively.

"How are we gonna do this Leo?" The red-masked turtle asked him.

"All we need to do is get them to chase us. I don't see how hard that could possibly be."

* * *

The three guards were already on high alert for something to be coming their direction, but they still stiffened somewhat when a large outline filled the space of the hallway a few yards away from them.

"Oh no, we're so lost. Whatever will we do?" Raphael announced with an extreme sense of sarcasm.

The men snapped out of their wary position, immediately striding his direction with weapons raised.

"_Shoot_. Now I have to run." The turtle mocked in an even more dumbed down tone, and quickly turned to meet Leonardo.

Both turtles took off with no further hesitation, leading the three on a merry chase down the corridor away from Observation.

"How long are we gonna have to do this Fearless?" Raphael grunted, as he narrowly avoided a gun shot that thudded into the wall.

"Not long - they just need unobstructed access to that room!" Leonardo answered.

"Then can't we just beat 'em down, and get it over with? It'd be nice to get back there _before_ they all kill themselves!"

Leonardo glanced back over his shoulder, and then held up one of the smoke bombs. "Agreed! Take the left flank, and stick to the wall. I'll go right, and hopefully we can avoid hurting each other!"

Both turtles pulled up short, almost as if they were going to surrender. But the instant the men came into closer range, Leonardo dropped his bomb to create a smoke screen, a condition of blindness that all of the brothers had experience fighting inside of.

Leonardo immediately reached out with his other senses, and picked up one of the men that was closest to him about a fraction of a second later. There was something extraordinarily satisfying about the solid connection he made with the man. The turtle heard Raphael's growl across from him, followed by the distinct_ thud _of another body hitting the floor.

Leonardo stood still, not moving right away as he reached out for some sign of the third. Something that sounded more like a grunt of pain from his brother made Leonardo act instantly, lunging in their direction based upon the sound. When he collided with something solid, touch alone confirmed that it wasn't Raphael. The turtle struck out a heavy blow where he expected the man's head to be, and allowed the guard to hit the floor among the slightly dissipating smoke.

"Raph! Are you alright?"

The red-masked turtle was fighting to stand up completely straight. "_Dang it_." He said breathlessly.

"Were you hurt badly? Can you keep going?" Leonardo asked with serious concern.

"No, I mean, yeah...I'm fine. I couldn't move as fast as I needed to." Raphael swallowed sharply, as he forced his shoulders forward once more. "C'mon. We need to catch up."

Leonardo nodded, setting off the third round of explosives before they started back for Observation.

* * *

Tim led the way inside the room with his rifle already drawn, and Luke and Jenna close behind him. Their weapons were raised before any of the others since they had a small element of surprise on their side, but it wasn't enough to make up for their serious lack of numbers. No less then fifteen guns were instantly pointed in return, as the room turned into an outright stand-off.

"Don't move." Tim hissed to the humans behind him, as he didn't so much as falter an inch himself. In the distance, they heard the sound of grenades going off, and Timothy took that as his cue.

"Hear that sound gentlemen?" Tim raised his voice to address the entire room at once. "Special forces are closing in. Apparently, the Air Force doesn't take too kindly to people when they steal their technology. They've already closed in the perimeter, you've got no chance of escaping. I think it's safe to say that you've got to make one of two choices here. You could take a few shots, but I guarantee some of you are going down with us. Scratch that - all of you are going down period. You're completely surrounded. I'd say we've got about...mm...three minutes before back-up arrives.

But I said you had another choice, didn't I? If you put your guns down, I can assure you that no one will die. If you wanna get out of here at all, that's the only way out that door _alive_. Put the guns down." The man's voice never so much as wavered through the speech.

Still, no one moved outright, only shifting uncomfortably when the _fourth _round went off, this time closer than all the others.

"Oh I'm sorry, that would be the one minute warning." Timothy stated boldly. "You guys are going to have to make up your minds pretty quick. Do you want to live, or do you want to die? The choice is yours'."

"What you really ought ask 'em is _how_ they wanna die." Raphael's voice cut in from the door. "'Cause if any of them survive through a hailstorm of bullets, their tails belong to _us_."

"And we have another offer added to the table." Tim said calmly. "Clocks ticking guys, I'm afraid I need a decision from you. If you surrender now, I can promise that nobody dies, and nobody will have a ticked off turtle unleashed on them. Leo, Raph, how do those terms work for you?"

"They're going to expire in about thirty seconds." Leonardo announced darkly.

The first gun to hit the floor was followed instantly by two more. A couple more seconds yielded a shower of weaponry clattering across the cement.

"You've made the right choice gentlemen." Tim never missed a beat. "Single file line against the wall please, hands on your heads."

When the two turtles got to Katherine, she was just starting to stir from a nasty stun. Leonardo swiftly broke the magnetic bonds on the sides, and tried to help her sit up.

"I...I'm alright." She assured them. "I just can't move yet - it was one of those stupid rifles."

Raphael gaze had just finished traversing the entire room. "Darn it, where the _shell _is Donnie?"


	48. Key

Lilah wasn't pleased to discover that the only vehicle located strategically nearby their exit point was a small four-door. _Well, you have to work with what you've got. _She glanced back over her shoulder at Lewis and Cooper, who'd been partially dragging the legs of their captive across the concrete.

"Just go ahead and put him in the trunk for now. We'll have to make this work." She instructed them.

The weary turtle was barely keeping his eyes open as it was, and about three seconds after he'd been closed in, he was already on the fringe of unconsciousness. Oblivious to everything else going on outside, the only thing that his subconscious actually recognized was that it was dark, and he was finally _alone_. There could be no sweeter relief available than sleep, and all he wanted to do was surrender to it.

As he slipped under, he felt a light prodding on his side, which wasn't enough to completely rouse him. It was too easy to ignore. The action repeated much more firmly a second time, seeming to physically shake the groggy turtle.

_**WAKE UP **_- It wasn't a request, but an insistent command. _**Wake up this instant!**_

It was followed by a surge of awareness, that crashed over his mind like a sonic boom. Donatello blinked in the darkness, immediately trying to make out indistinct surroundings as he suddenly became aware of them for the first time.

_What? Wait a minute, where I am? _

He wasn't strapped to that stupid "dental" chair anymore, but he could tell that his wrists and legs had still been restrained somehow. Underneath his shell he felt motion, signifying that he was probably in some kind of vehicle. The way that the car jolted underneath him, it was apparent that it wasn't a paved surface.

_Okay, this is weird. How did I get here?_

_**Forget how. Get started while you have the chance.**_

The key. Donatello shifted his right arm with some difficultly, hoping against hope to feel the metal of the rod against his skin again. He let out a deep breath when he located it. _Alright. I've got to figure something out before they can put serious speed under this ride. Maybe if I could twist..._

The turtle squirmed determinedly in the enclosed space, until he managed to bump into the front of the trunk. _Okay, first things first. I gotta get this band off...without my hands. If I could get it caught on something, that might do the trick._

He wriggled with a little more difficulty to get his lashed together wrists closer to the sidewall, and then started searching over the surface with his fingers, hoping to find some kind of a sharp corner. Donatello had never been more happy to prick his finger before. Then he had to fight to get his arm into the correct position, and made a couple of attempts to get the material of his band to catch on the edge.

A slight tug revealed he'd been successful, and then he yanked hard to free it entirely. The turtle heard the soft sound of the rod striking the interior, and nodded to himself. Donatello took another deep breath to force himself to stay calm, and began slowly probing around with his fingers to find it in the darkness, praying to come in contact with the key.

A few seconds of struggling on the floor of the trunk only made him feel more desperate, and forced him to take yet _another_ deep breath. _C'mon, it's here. Settle down, you'll find it._

He resumed the careful search, feeling his way slowly closer to the center of the trunk. When he got one finger on the metal rod, it may as well have been a bolt of electricity for how it made him feel. Donatello slowly maneuvered the piece, straining to get it into the correct position, closer to his wrists. He was working completely blind, and with very little room to actually move his hands. _Just keep it parallel...you'll hit the right spot. Keep trying._

Donatello almost stopped breathing altogether when one side of the manacles actually released.

* * *

Michelangelo had noticed the headlights coming over the field a couple of minutes prior to that, and gotten out of the car to have a closer look for himself. There was definitely someone coming up the gravel side-road located a few yards ahead of them, traveling toward Route 42.

"Who are you, and where are you going?" The turtle wondered aloud, ducking back further toward the brush as it got closer to him.

He never once took his eyes off the vehicle as it passed, and then turned right back onto the main road. A strange chill traveled down his spine in that moment, along with strong sense of _brotherly_ intuition. It was powerful enough to send the turtle nearly sprawling in his haste to get back to the Cavalier.

Heart racing, Michelangelo dropped on the passenger seat, and slammed his door shut hard. "Start the car Sarah, right now! We're following them."

"But..but Tim said--" She faltered.

"He's not here." The turtle interrupted sharply. "Do you seriously think that happened right in front of us for no reason?"

The woman almost smiled in the darkness. "It almost sounds like you know _me_ better than I do. Okay, whatever you say Mike."

Sarah turned the key back in the ignition, and pulled the car back onto 42.

"Catch back up with them, but don't make it look like you're trying too hard." Michelangelo advised her.

"Yeah, I know how to do that." She said a little sarcastically.

"Just don't punch the gas all at once, and don't get right on them." He explained, his eyes then widening when he got a true glimpse of the road in front of them. "And watch the road - there's a ton of extra junk to run into."

"These debris are no joke." She muttered. "I can't imagine what it must have been like down here a couple of hours ago."

Mike glanced down suddenly as his phone vibrated. "Yeah Marc, what's up?" He asked innocently.

"Where the heck are you going? We _saw_ you guys just drive by!"

"Following a hunch. We'll be back soon."

"Mike, what are you doing? You're supposed to stay close! You tell Sarah to turn that car around, and you get your shell back here now!"

Michelangelo thought about it for a couple of seconds, and then shook his head like Marcus could actually see him. "Make me." The turtle finally proclaimed, and snapped the phone shut.

* * *

After getting Katherine to a better position, Leonardo and Raphael had taken over the task of binding their former captors, while the humans were covering them. The turtles were trying to be thorough about it, but quick as well. Both were eager to get searching for their missing brother, who still had to be around here somewhere.

As they were still finishing up, Timothy decided to be proactive about it, voicing the question that was plaguing every single one of them.

"Alright gentlemen, now that we have your attention, maybe one of you could be so kind as to tell us where the other turtle is."

He hadn't expected an immediate response, and he sure didn't get one.

"We can be reasonable about this, or we can get nasty." Tim continued. "Once again, the choice is yours'."

As Leonardo got his hands on the next individual, he suddenly realized who it actually was that he had a hold of. Quickly he spun Nicholas around so that he was facing him down, and pinned the young man firmly against the wall.

"We meet again." The turtle said coolly, and then raised his voice for all the others to hear as well. "If none of you are comfortable talking in front of everyone, we'd be happy to separate you out one by one, for a more _personal_ chat. How about it 'Nick', you wanna go first?"

The young man shook his head violently from side to side. "No, no please! I didn't see him, I-I don't know where she took him!"

"That's too bad." Leonardo said regretfully, his keen eyes reading from the kid's expression that there was more Nicholas wasn't saying. "Perhaps a walk with me might jog your memory."

"She wouldn't have stayed!" Nicholas blurted out before he could stop himself. "There's another way outside, a...a passage, it's a secret one."

"A passage?" One of the bound men snapped at once. "Why didn't any of us know about it?"

"If we'd told you, it wouldn't have been a secret!" The young man shot back, effectively enraging the other man.

"You rotten little bastard, I'm gonna tear you limb from--MMPH!"

Raphael's iron hand shut the offending man up, and Leonardo drew back Nicholas' attention.

"You were saying?"

"There's another escape route." He told the turtle. "She took a couple of men with her...and they had your brother."

Raphael's free hand slammed into the wall, dangerously close to the man he was muffling. "If we don't find him, I'm coming back here to kick _all_ of your tails, you people understand me?"

* * *

The first thing Donatello had done after freeing his both wrists was to pry the make-shift gag carefully off. _It'll be a cold day in Hell before I mess around with duct tape again_, he thought ruefully. Freeing his legs hadn't been very difficult, now that he actually had use of his arms.

He'd long ago spotted the emergency trunk release, a handy fixture that glowed in the darkness that enclosed him. Donatello was nervous. He wasn't sure that he even had the energy to run, but some kind of an attempt had to be better than making no attempt at all. The car beneath him didn't seem to be traveling as fast as it could have been. It puzzled him somewhat, as he sensed it swerving yet again, as if taking part in some oversized obstacle course.

_I can't keep waiting_, he thought decisively._ I just...I have to go for it, the next opportunity that comes up._

Jumping out of a moving vehicle, particularly in the condition he was already in, didn't seem like the smartest course of action. But what choice did he really have?

His fingers were just barely grasping the trunk release cord, as the rest of his body tensed for action. A few seconds later, he felt the brakes being applied, and knew that he had to attempt a break for it. Donatello pulled hard on the release, and tried to control the trunk lid from rising too quickly, and garnering extra attention.

Adrenaline surging, he drew his legs underneath him, took one last deep breath, and sprang out of the trunk after releasing the lid entirely. His fleeting thought was a prayer that he would have enough lift underneath him, and that he wouldn't hit the pavement too hard.


	49. Rescued

The few seconds that Donatello was airborne were terrifying ones, as he attempted to tuck his head to protect himself, and hoped that he wouldn't land on his knee the wrong way. He was surprised by how many things actually had _time_ to flash through his mind in the brief span.

The turtle struck a grassy embankment, landing hard on his left side, and felt shattering pain in the wrist that had partially broken his fall. He couldn't prevent himself from falling further down the embankment toward what seemed to be a ditch at first, until he hit the shallow muddy water at the bottom.

He tried to struggle upright - but no, that wasn't actually going to happen. Breathing hard, he raised his head, and saw the outline of a culvert straight ahead of him. Donatello made the split second decision to head for it, and felt another spike in adrenaline as he moved hand over foot in that direction.

* * *

Lewis had rammed the car into reverse the second that he _realized_ the trunk had been popped, seeming to completely forget about the debris that he'd been forced to pick his way through for the last half of a mile. Their back tires struck the metal sheering of what used to be a storage shed, and the car went no further.

"Out! Get out!" Lilah ordered the two men quickly. "He can't have gotten far. Split up - first one to find the turtle gets to beat him within an inch of his life!"

"Oh, he's so mine." Lewis stated darkly as he yanked out of his seatbelt, and snagged his weapon off the back-seat.

All three humans descended on the darkness of the field, but while Lewis and Cooper hurried off in their own directions to locate where Donatello could have landed or run to, Lilah was slightly more methodical. She took a few moments to slowly gather in the sight of the immediate surroundings.

_Let's see. He's weak, injured, and exhausted. I doubt he would have been able to run at __all__. More likely, he would have to rely on holing up somewhere..._

Her eyes fell on the culvert that the water was flowing from, and she nodded to herself. With flashlight in one hand and gun in the other, she headed toward it.

* * *

"Sarah, pull over! Right here, just pull over!" Michelangelo urged the woman.

They hadn't actually seen Donatello, but the sight of the three humans converging on the field gave Mike the sneaking suspicion that his brainy brother had managed to bail out.

As Sarah pulled over on the shoulder, Mike suddenly grabbed a hold of her arm firmly. "Now listen. I want you to stay here, you understand me? Don't get out of the car, and don't try anything crazy. Just _stay_, and don't move a muscle unless you're threatened. Take my phone, hold onto it. If I don't come back, then get yourself out of here, head back to that building and find the others."

He didn't give her a chance to protest so much as a single word, but quickly jumped out of the car, and went skidding down the embankment himself out of her sight. The turtle hit the water and took a sharp breath, glancing from left to right.

_Okay...okay, think like Donnie. I'm hurt, but I'm desperate...what do I try? Where do I go?_

At that moment, another strong inner urging seemed to be tugging at him almost like a tractor beam, drawing his eyes in the direction of the culvert. Of course.

* * *

The tunnel was spinning before Donatello's waking eyes, and shock waves of pain were screaming from his left wrist, at every ounce of pressure he applied to it. The rest of his limbs were already feeling more sluggish, as the last burst of adrenaline just didn't seem to be lingering. Unintentionally he collapsed into the mud, his entire body heaving from the exertion of the effort he'd been expending.

When he raised his head, he caught sight of the beam of a flashlight, landing on the sidewall of the tunnel, literally groaning out loud. He was cut off already.

"Well, you've managed to impress me Donatello, and that's not easy to do." A familiar _terrible_ voice said to him, then leveled her foot against the back of his neck to force his head back down. "It's easy to see why Isaac was so intrigued - no, obsessed with you. I have to say that it was a truly worthy attempt, but it's just not enough. You have to understand Donatello...I learned from the best. And I still have a few things to teach you myself, before this is all over with."

The barrel of her weapon was pointed to cover him, though not actually touching the turtle, as she judged how much he still might be capable of resisting. As she bent a little further over him, the sound of the soft whistle through the air completely escaped her, so that the shocking pain of wood against her gun hand was her first signal that someone was behind her.

"_I _learned from the best." A seriously angry figure glowered from behind her.

Lilah didn't take the time to think, she simply dove after her fallen weapon that hadn't strayed far.

"Y'don't wanna do that." The turtle warned her soundly as she spun around to face him, raising the gun to his eye-level.

He lashed out with his remaining nunchuck before the woman could remotely get a clean shot at him. It made a sickening crack where it came in contact with her skull, and the woman hit the tunnel floor.

"_Mikey_?" His brother's voice wavered, and the orange-masked turtle forgot all about her, leaping over her unconscious form without a second glance.

He quickly pulled Donatello off his plastron, carefully back onto his shell. "Yeah Don, it's me." Mike said, his own voice shaking a little. "Aw _shell_, am I glad to see you!"

He gathered his brother's chest in a firm embrace, tears springing immediately to his blue eyes. Donatello couldn't bring himself to voice how much that hurt in that instant, he was too busy staring at his younger brother.

"_How_? How did you find me?"

"I told you I would." The orange-masked turtle said impishly, and then sighed softly. "Darn it, you feel like ice bro. Do you think you can move at all? You know I'd carry you if I could."

"Gimme a second." The purple-banded turtle told him. "If you help me_ up_, I might be able to make it a short way...I think."

"It's alright, we can take our time Donnie. Don't try anything too fast."

"Don't try anything at all." Someone proclaimed rather mockingly from behind the pair, a _different_ terrible voice. "What's this now? Who do we have here?"

Michelangelo automatically started to turn, until he felt the barrel of a gun against his head. Lewis brought his flashlight up to bear so that he could see the turtle better, and caught sight of the signature orange.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me." He laughed out loud. "Two for the price of one - who would have thought?"

The turtle's muscles stiffened as if preparing for some kind of move, but Lewis picked up on it immediately.

"I wouldn't do that." He said firmly. "I don't need any more excuses to kill your brother Michelangelo. You so much as breathe wrong, and I'll take you out. Then I'll take him out, and that's a promise. The only reason he's still alive is because Lilah wouldn't _let_ me kill him before. It appears you took care of that little problem for me, a fact for which I am most appreciative. Now I want you to show me your hands."

_And the idiot resurfaces_, the turtle thought despondently, as he slowly raised them.

Lewis called to someone who was behind him, and kept his gun on Michelangelo while the second pushed him against the tunnel wall, and yanked his wrists into restraints.

Lewis gave the orange-masked turtle a smirk, and then turned the look directly on the woman at his feet. Without so much as a word, he fired a single shot into her skull, and gave Michelangelo another smile.

"Thanks for your help. Now for other matter."

Lewis already had to partially crouch in the space, which wasn't quite tall enough for him to stand up straight. But now he lowered himself intentionally to Donatello's level.

"I've been hoping to get you alone Donatello, but this works just as well."

All of the pent-up rage he'd been harboring for days exploded behind his fist as he punched the turtle out, wringing his own wrist painfully from the force of the contact.

"Stay on the other, I'll get this one." Lewis called to Cooper, as he dragged Donatello partially off the ground.

In the free air outside the culvert, the man shot Michelangelo a triumphant glance. "You know, it's been a heck of a night. I can hardly wait for tomorrow." He said with a threatening smile, as he slung the purple-banded turtle onto the embankment like a sack of feed. "Don't take your eyes off of him for one _second_ Cooper." He warned his new-found partner. "Let's get back up to the road."

* * *

Sarah had been waiting on pins and needles to catch sight of something, but she _wasn't _prepared to see Michelangelo being led at gunpoint, or another figure dragging what was clearly Donatello.

Cooper noticed the Cavalier first, and called Lewis' attention to it. "That's the car from the other night!" He shouted.

"You didn't think he came alone, did you?" Lewis laughed. "I'll handle this."

He dropped his turtle in the road, and immediately aimed his weapon for the car. Michelangelo fought Cooper's grip instantly, despite the fact that he still had a gun on his own head. With a roll of his eyes, Lewis whirled back around, and brought the full force of his weight against the turtle's rib-cage. If it weren't for Cooper still holding on to him, the turtle probably _would_ have smacked pavement.

"I'm gonna finish this." Lewis stated. "If he tries anything again, just shoot him."

That said, the man fired three successive shots in the Cavalier's direction, and the sound of glass shattering from the passenger side window filled the air behind it. In spite of the shock of it, Sarah had managed to get the car into reverse, and quickly gunned it backwards.

Mikes' command to flee came rushing back to her, but every fiber of her being balked at it.

"No. No way." Her hands returned to the steering wheel, eyes suddenly narrowing of their own accord.

Then she shifted the car back into gear, and slammed on the accelerator.

"You wanna play chicken sweetheart? I'm game for that." Lewis said smugly, taking his stance to be more focused on the windshield this time.

As soon as the car was in closer range he unloaded shot after shot, standing in the middle of the road until the vehicle was absolutely bearing down on him. Only then did he try to get out of the path of the charging Cavalier.

Sarah jerked the wheel to stay with him as he jogged left, feeling what could only be described as a complete out of body experience when the hood struck him, sending the man several feet down on top of the remains of the same storage shed he'd backed into himself.

In the fraction of seconds that the scene was unfolding, Michelangelo jerked his shoulder with all of the force he could muster, ramming it into his captor's jaw. The man crumbled beneath the blow, and Mike made a mad dash for the Cavalier, both hands still captured firmly behind his back.

"SARAH!"

The trembling woman emerged out of the car, from behind the now bullet-ridden windshield. She was clearly bleeding from the shower of glass that accompanied the bullet that penetrated the passenger side window on Lewis' first round, but none the worse for wear. As she approached the turtle, she was so overcome that she couldn't speak right away, gasping for more air to actually enter her lungs.

"I told you to RUN!" The turtle proclaimed fiercely, tears rising for the second time in less than ten minutes.

After a few more seconds to collect herself, through her own tears she managed a very shaky smile. "What, as if I'd actually _die_? Wouldn't that be considered like some form of suicide?"

The turtle scowled at her in return. "That's not even funny right now."


	50. Relief

"...Okay, either there's some weird trick to this, or I'm just incredibly dumb." Sarah said flatly, as she was seemingly incapable of getting the manacles off the orange-masked turtle's wrists. She had taken a few seconds to check on Donatello first, before swiftly returning to try and help Michelangelo.

"I doubt that Sarah." The turtle said dryly. "Just forget about it for minute, and grab a couple of the zip-ties off my belt. Put 'em on that thug over there, before he decides to wake up. Yank them as tight as you can."

As she moved to obey him, another pair of headlights pulled up on the road behind the Cavalier. Michelangelo's first instinct was to stiffen considerably, but the sight of the _masked_ figure approaching first was very reassuring. It was definitely Tim or Luke.

"Over here!" The turtle called urgently. "We've got Donnie!"

The man pulled off his disguise with a deep breath of relief, as he dashed over to meet Michelangelo.

"I'm sorry I broke from script Tim," Mike said quickly. "But things changed."

The man gave Michelangelo a concerned once over. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I am." The turtle answered, suddenly distracted by the fact that two more figures were approaching from around the side of the Avalanche.

A surge of joy filled the orange-masked turtle when he laid his eyes on his brothers, _all _of his brothers, now accounted for. They headed straight for him, as Michelangelo waved Tim off to go have a closer look at Donatello.

"It's about time you showed up." Mike grinned at the pair. "Do I have to do everything myself?"

"You can't actually keep _yourself_ out of trouble, can you?" Raphael stated sarcastically.

"Yeah, you're one to talk." Mike replied, shaking his head as he took in the full sight of brothers.

They were both clearly injured. He could read from Raphael's posture and the way that he shifted his weight that his brother was having a difficult time maintaining his balance.

"It's so good to see you guys." Michelangelo told them, unable to keep the teasing tone alive any longer. "That was _not_ cool."

"The feeling's mutual Mikey." Leonardo said affectionately, then glanced over his shoulder as his bound wrists. "What's going on back here?"

"Beats me bro, I'm just hoping I'm not stuck in them forever." He answered.

Leonardo gave him a small knowing smile. "Not a chance. I've got your fix right here, just hang on a second."

After restraining the man that Mike had knocked out, Sarah had returned to join Tim at Donatello's side again. She cringed outwardly again at the sight of him, shaking her head.

"I_ am _a monster." She whispered under her breath.

Tim glanced her direction, and did a double-take when he got a closer look at the woman. "You're bleeding!"

"I'm fine, honest. At least for having just hit someone with my car."

Tim's look immediately turned in the direction of the man who was bound face down on the pavement.

"No, not him - Mike did that, with his hands behind his back no less. It was someone else, I'm not even sure where he ended up." Sarah spoke up.

"Stay here, I'll have a look around." He said firmly, and then rose to his feet.

Michelangelo was in_ both _his brothers' arms at once the moment Leonardo had him free. "Easy, easy guys." He had to remind them to keep from being crushed completely. "Ya'll act like you were worried about_ me_!"

"We did kinda miss you bonehead." Raphael managed a grin in return, but then cast a harried look in Donatello's direction.

Leonardo withdrew Karina's cellphone to call Luke, but stopped short when he saw Sarah too. "What happened?"

"Passenger window shattered." She filled in, and the red-banded turtle took a step back towards the car for a better look.

"You were shot at?" Raphael demanded, but no one had time to say anything else as Tim trotted back up to join them, with someone _else's _.9mm in his hand.

"Did you find Lewis?" Michelangelo asked quickly, having easily recognized the man from previous encounters.

"He's gone." Timothy replied, and then swiftly shook his head at the turtle's stricken glances. "No, I mean he's dead_, _he didn't escape. He's got a four foot sheet of metal through his...well, I'll spare you the details. The gun's been completely unloaded - you're _very_ lucky he missed you that many times Sarah."

"'A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.'" The woman quoted, and then pointed at Leonardo to change the subject. "Weren't you going to call someone?"

The turtle blinked, and then seemed to notice the phone in his hand once more. "Yeah, I'd better." He answered a little faintly, and punched Luke's speed dial. "Doc - yeah, we've got Donnie...Mikey and Sarah too, they found him...I wouldn't even know where to begin...He's unconscious, I can't tell how badly he's injured...Okay...Okay, we'll be there as fast as we can."

Leonardo snapped the phone shut, and looked up at everyone else. "Greg needs to get out here now. We need to get back to the others."

* * *

"Can you not make a big deal out of this?" Sarah requested of Luke, as he was trying to get a closer look at her. "It's embarrassing enough as it is."

The man cocked his head at her. "Why are you embarassed?"

"I don't like this kind of attention. And we need to go anyway, don't we?"

He nodded, as he pressed the keys to Greg's Jeep into her hand. "Thank you for doing this. Tim's going to take care of your car, seeing as how he can actually _drive_ a stick. I promise, we'll make sure it's good as new."

"Don't worry about that right this second. I'm just glad those idiots didn't burn Heff's Jeep. I'll call you when I have some news, okay?" The woman told him, as she backed towards the driver's side.

Karina met Luke on her own way to the car. "This is the right thing to do." She assured him a fifth time. "Greg and Kat need the hospital, and the guys need you and Marc."

"Right. Of course it is." Luke said a little tightly, and then motioned towards the Liberty. "Will you make sure Sarah gets checked out too?"

"I will, and you'd better say bye to Kat." Karina told him, and headed around the side of the vehicle.

Luke ducked his head back into the open back passenger side, coming in close to Kat's level. He brushed bronze hair from her forehead, and squeezed her hand with the other. "I hate letting you out of my sight." He said aloud.

"I know, but it's gonna be alright. I'll see you soon - take care of the guys." She replied tiredly.

He kissed her quickly, and withdrew much sooner than he wanted to. "Get them out of here Sarah, and keep in touch."

* * *

Donatello's first sensation of returning to reality was spreading warmth. Not burning, like the heat of earlier flames, but a comfortable sensation that rolled over the surface of his skin like waves of renewal. The turtle quietly stirred on what _felt_ like hard tile, and blinked to find himself staring yet again at a strange ceiling, with no idea where he was, or how he'd gotten there.

Chocolate brown eyes roved slightly, trying to locate something familiar. When he felt someone's fingers on his face, the turtle nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Easy." A soft woman's voice warned him. "Be careful Donnie, it's just me."

The dark haired girl staring back at him may as well have been a vision for all he knew.

"Jenna?" He said somewhat uncertainly, now suddenly also aware of the fact that he was soaking wet, but not cold, lying close by what had to be a shower-head.

"Yes." She said firmly, as he pressed further against her hand.

"Are you real?" He whispered.

She blinked back tears from her light blue eyes, and then leaned over the turtle to kiss him lightly on the lips. "As real as you are." She answered with a wry smile.

The turtle tried to get his elbows underneath him, and Jenna instantly pressed a hand to his shoulder to stop him from going any further. "Don't try to move too much yet. You're hurt, and you haven't actually been treated. I was just helping clean you up so that you _could_ be."

"Where are we?"

"Safe." She said simply. "We'll fill in all the details, but you don't need to know everything right this moment. Maybe you'd like _this _back though - Raph told me that stupid woman tried to claim it for herself."

Jenna held up her medallion in his sight, and he sighed quietly. "I didn't think I'd see it again. Hold onto it for me for right now, will you?"

Donatello gazed hard at the woman, taking in the full sight of her frame, wet and slightly disheveled from kneeling in pools of water beside him. And still the most beautiful thing he could have imagined. "I love you." He murmured.

"I love you too Donnie...But if you ever do that to me again, I'm going to divorce you." She finished sardonically.

A half smile cracked at that. "Good luck finding a judge that'll take you seriously."

"Oh well. I guess you're stuck with me." She replied, hoping for a laugh.

But even the slight smile on his face erased as quickly as it had appeared.

"Is it really over?" He asked. "Who made it?"

"It's finished." She reassured him. "Everyone is safe. Greg's not in good shape at all, but he's on his way to help, the best place for him."

The turtle's brown eyes clenched shut suddenly, as if he were in pain. "Did you find any sign of Leo?" He forced himself to ask.

"Yeah Donnie, I told you we've got everybody. Now that things are settled down, Doc and Marc are finally getting to treat him and Raph."

Donatello's eyes snapped open with a bewildered look. "Treat him?"

"They're hurt Don, but they'll be alright." Jenna told him.

"No." The turtle said softly, voice wavering through the single syllable. "No, I saw...I saw him. He wasn't...he was _gone_, he was..."

Jenna was startled by how shaken the turtle was, as he seemed to instantly shut down on her. "Donnie, listen to me. He's not gone, I swear he isn't."

Donatello shook his head with a tremor. "But I saw..."

Jenna pressed his shoulder lightly again. "Wait. Just hold on for minute."

The woman got to her feet, and scooped up her phone off a nearby chair.

"Doc?" She said softly when he answered. "Any chance you can get Leo over here? I think Donnie needs to see him pretty badly. Yeah, he's awake and talking...but it sounds like he thinks Leo is _dead."_

After hanging up the phone, Jenna returned to the purple-banded turtle, carefully supporting him under the arms to help him sit up.

"Careful now, watch your wrist." Jenna warned him, indicating the only area that had already been wrapped. "Doc says it's broken."

"What's going on?" He asked her.

"Someone's coming to prove himself to you." She answered evenly.

Jenna waited to make sure that he was alright sitting up on his own, and then stepped off the tile herself when she heard a light tapping at the door.

Leonardo gave her a slight nod as he entered, before walking with some painfully obvious stiffness in his muscles over to join his younger brother. As he knelt slowly at his side, he wasn't sure if Donatello's eyes could _get_ any wider.

"Hey bro." Leonardo greeted him gently. "I'm alive. See?"

"But she said...and I saw you. I-I thought that..."

Leonardo wrapped his arms around him immediately, holding on to him reassuringly. "She lied Donnie. She lied, and she set things up to look that way. I'm fine - I'm _here_."

Wracking sobs coursed through Donatello's chest as he clung to his older brother, trembling like a leaf in his grip. One of Leonardo's hands moved to support the back of his head, as he tried very hard to comfort him.

"It's okay." The older turtle breathed softly. "It's over, it's all finished. We're all here Donnie, _all _of us."

* * *

***I'm not sure I can honestly fathom the tremendous amount of relief and emotion that someone would feel at a moment like that one...I can only hope I scratched the surface. There are still some loose ends to tie up, so ya'll come back now. ;)**


	51. Choices

Michelangelo was aching fiercely as if he'd run a seven hour marathon, but the amount of calm that had settled over him was a completely surreal experience after everything that they had just been through. He'd stayed in close proximity with Leonardo and Raphael while they were being treated by the docs, allowing Jenna the personal space to deal with Donatello on her own, though the woman hadn't asked for it.

April had taken a few minutes to move the Battle Shell up to the Compound, and gather some of the rations to bring inside, after Leonardo had already disappeared with Luke to check on Donatello. Marcus noted Raphael's pointed gaze land on the woman as she sifted through a bag of non-perishables, and he shook his head at the turtle.

"You probably shouldn't be eating anything like that yet." Marcus commented, and the red-banded turtle rolled his eyes.

"Can't you give a starving turtle a break? I'm _hungry_."

"Well...don't come crying to me if you can't keep it down." Marc shrugged.

"When have you ever known Raph to waste food Marc?" Michelangelo grinned.

"It's your choice." The doctor said plainly. "Obviously, it's not going to kill you, and I'm not going to deny you at this point."

April ducked down to Raphael's level, and then slid against the wall beside him. "We don't have anything really substantial, but at least it's something, right?" She said with a slight smile for him.

The turtle pawed through the contents of her bag for a few seconds before settling on something, and then shoved the bag in Michelangelo's direction. He actually savored a bite of the cereal bar before sighing a little contentedly.

"Fake fruit never tasted this good before." He remarked, getting a chuckle out of April.

"Only the best for you Raph." She replied.

The red-banded turtle was through one, and starting a second before his amber eyes got a little more serious. "So you got to play the genius role this time, huh?" He asked her.

"Hardly." She snorted. "It took me so long to get_ anything _accomplished, even with the direct access Donatello gave me. I don't even want to be solely responsible for the technical aspect again, do you understand me?"

"Sounds like something you'll have to take up with Donnie." Raphael replied, as he tossed aside the second wrapper, and took a long drink of water out of a bottle.

The usual fire in his eyes seemed somewhat muted, as he couldn't hide the open anxiety from surfacing again. "Marc...do you really think Heff is going to be okay? I need you to be real with me here."

"I can tell you that his chances are a lot better with where he is now Raph." Marcus replied carefully. "Out here...I don't know that he would have lasted the rest of the night."

"I didn't think he was gonna." Raphael admitted. "That was the worst part out of all this, besides worrying about Leo and Donnie. The beating and starving was actually a lot easier to handle."

* * *

Timothy had been making some intermittent rounds of the two separate holding areas, which had been put to infinitely better use in the last couple of hours. He had no desire to taunt any of the former guards or give them some further chance of recognizing them, but something repeatedly seemed to be drawing him in the direction of Nicholas Sharp.

They had intentionally separated the young man from all the others, dividing the other eighteen individuals between three of the four cells, so they could leave the youngest on his own. Timothy had donned his mask again, and finally gone to actually have a word with him.

Nicholas was sitting cross-legged against the far wall of the cell, eyes closed as if half asleep when Tim approached.

"This isn't the end of the road you know." Timothy stated evenly. "You're young. You've got your whole life ahead of you. This doesn't have to be all that there is to it."

Nicholas' gaze landed on him for an instant, but then immediately looked away. "I don't see myself taking life lessons from some crazy vigilante in a mask, but thanks for stopping by." He answered a little dully.

"Your life isn't disposable." Tim pursued him further, even though he wasn't sure why he was bothering. "You don't have to treat it like it is, just because other people do. There's no reason you can't do something different with it. I think there's still hope for you, if you actually want it."

The young man made a sound that might have constituted a laugh, but there was no real feeling behind it. "You can lose the psycho babble if you want, I'm beyond listening to it. My_ entire _life has been disposable, and I don't see that changing any time soon."

"Let me tell you something," Tim's tone was softly serious. "I get that you've probably been used and discarded more times in your life than you'd ever want to think about. But your worth and your direction don't have to be determined by people like Stolle or Lilah. To them, you were nothing but a tool with limited usage. Your life is bigger than them."

"Sure it is." Nicholas mumbled vaguely.

"It can be, if you choose to go that route. You're a smart kid, right? You'd probably never run out of people who'd like to use you for their own perverted purposes. But that doesn't need to be your only story."

"You think it's that easy change me?" The young man challenged. "What would it take for someone to persuade_ you _to the dark side?"

"They couldn't." Tim answered. "But all I'm trying to point out, is that you're not bound to this lifestyle. There's still hope for you."

"Why are you even saying all this?" Nicholas asked. "You don't expect me to believe that you care what happens to me."

"If that were true, we would have gone ahead and grouped you with the others." Tim said, so quietly that only he could have heard him. "Obviously you seem to have failed to realize that you're being _protected_."

The young man actually focused on him for the first time, for more than a couple of seconds. "Why would you do that?"

"For starters, because we believe in justice, not revenge. And secondly...I honestly think you have a chance to be something more than a crummy career criminal."

* * *

Leonardo and Jenna sat nearby while Luke got started with the purple-banded turtle, who was clearly having serious difficulty staying awake for him. His eyes felt so much like lead that he could hardly keep them open while Luke was asking him questions, trying to get a fix on his mental status.

"M' sorry Doc." Donatello said faintly, after not responding to a couple of them. "I haven't slept in...days. She wouldn't let me. That's where a lot of the _damage_ comes from."

"It's alright Donnie." Luke assured him. "Feel free to try and rest, and I'll just get started on a few things."

The turtle's breathing was even as the doctor began treating and wrapping injuries, but he could tell that Donatello wasn't really asleep yet.

_I have to try and be a little quicker about this - he's not going to get any real sleep until I'm finished, _Luke told himself inwardly.

"There's something that still bothers me." Leonardo was telling Jenna in the background. "We know what happened with Stolle, and Lilah...even that Lewis guy. But we never saw any sign of Williams. I hate the thought of that man still out there somewhere."

"He's dead." Donatello mumbled from the floor, so softly that no one understood him at first.

"What'd you say Donnie?" Luke asked.

Without bothering to open his eyes, the turtle rolled his neck in the direction of the voices, and tried to raise his voice further. "Williams. He's dead."

Even Leonardo heard him that time, and came to his side as quickly as he was able to. "You _know_ that Donnie? Did you see what happened to him?"

"Did I see it? I _did_ it." Donatello replied. "He was gonna kill me...I didn't have a choice..."

Leonardo released a somewhat shaky sigh. "I'm sure you did what you had to, and that news isn't going to disappoint anybody. I _wondered_ why he up and just disappeared."

"Lewis was so angry..." Donnie said slowly. "When Lilah wouldn't let him kill me, it wasn't hard to believe that he'd..."

Leonardo rubbed the back of his head thoughtfully. "I got the memo on the angry part. Wow. You're going to have to tell us the whole story Don, but it can wait. I'm going to give Doc back his space to work, but I'll see you later, alright?" The turtle finished.

After Leonardo rose with some difficulty to return to his other brothers, Jenna came back to Luke's side to see if she could assist him in what he needed to do. Silence prevailed after that, and the turtle actually fell asleep in spite of the two humans who weren't quite finished.

"She wouldn't let him rest? That's so strange." Jenna said softly. "What was the point, besides just being cruel?"

"Sleep deprivation can be a form of torture Jen." Luke explained to her. "Getting the proper rest is vital for so many of the functions that our brains perform. There are a ton of things happening neurologically while we sleep at night, that we don't even understand in the scientific community. The brain itself burns through energy at a constant rate while it's awake as well, and given the fact that he didn't have any other sources of energy coming in...his body would have started to shut even more of that function down, just to compensate. I'm shocked that he was able to escape from that trunk at all." Luke told Jenna honestly, as he gave the purple-banded turtle another long look. "All of this could have had a very different ending. This entire night feels like one big dream. Did we actually do this Jenna?" He asked a little ironically.

"You're asking the wrong girl Luke, I'm still pinching myself. I suppose I'd better get in contact with my Mom soon."

"How did she take your involvement in _this_ affair?"

"She took it great - I didn't tell her."

"Jen!"

"I've already used up my one free 'I might be about to die, but I love you anyway' phone call Luke. I don't know if I'm allowed to use that again."


	52. Family & Options

Timothy had come back around to find Luke a few minutes later, and motioned the man out to the hall so that they could take without accidentally bothering Donatello.

"Are we secure as far as everyone else is concerned?" Luke asked him.

"They're not getting out, if that's what you mean. But with the debris trail the storm left on 42, you _know_ the emergency workers are going to get down this direction. We might have some time on our side yet, but we still need to be considering our options for where we can take these guys." Timothy told him.

"Well...Sarah's aunt's place is probably out of the picture now. I don't want the four of them stuck in a tent in their conditions, and it's a constant risk to hide them from that neighbor that comes to take care of the dogs. Then there's Sarah's house too, but it sounded like Stolle's people got in there. There could have been outward damage that would have drawn more unwanted attention. I'm not sure _what_ to do right now." Luke said wistfully.

"We'll probably have to chance taking them back to Sarah's house. I'm not saying we need to dash off right this second, we just need to be at least planning for it, alright Doc? Timothy tried to give him a reassuring smile. "I think it's safe to say that we're through the most difficult portion here. It's okay to _breathe_ Luke."

The man let out the breath that he'd been unintentionally holding, and his blue-eyed gaze focused hard on Tim as he tried to swallow back emotion.

"We couldn't have done this without you." Luke said quietly. "I don't know what would have happened."

"A team's made up of many parts Luke, and it'll always suffer if any of the pieces are missing. It's been a privilege working with you." Tim said a little officially, and held out his hand toward him.

Luke simply glanced at his extended hand, and shook his head. "We don't really do that around here Tim." He stated, and held out his arms to the man instead.

Tim grinned, and hugged the man briefly. "Hey, does this make me a full-fledged member, or what?"

Luke chuckled at him. "I'm pretty sure that was established awhile back."

"There's friends, and then there's family." Tim pointed out.

"The latter Tim, definitely."

* * *

Sarah and Karina had been alternating between nervously shifting in their seats in the waiting room, and pacing the halls to help drive off some of the weariness that was creeping up on them. Sarah had received some attention earlier on, before returning to the floor that Karina was waiting on.

Katherine had been admitted for dehydration and some minor burns, along other things. Greg was in intensive care on a respirator, while his lungs were still being drained of fluid. The girls couldn't be with_ either _of them right now, and were reduced to waiting around for news, or an hour that they could actually visit with them.

Sarah threw another glance at the clock, even as her thoughts were drawn back toward Greg again._ I hate hospitals. I've always hated them, but I've put this off long enough. Somebody needs to wait around closer to Greg, and Karina should be able to stay around here for her sister._

She rose from her chair, and looked over her shoulder at Karina. "I think I'm going to head over to ICU. I bet we'll get information faster if one of us is sitting around there."

"You don't have to do that." Karina spoke up.

"I want you to stay close to Kat. If she was my sister, I wouldn't want to be separated from her. Call me if you hear anything yourself, okay?" Sarah urged her, and the bronze haired woman nodded.

As she walked toward the elevator, her cell phone was already in her hand. Now wasn't really the time to call someone, and explaining what had happened that night to anyone outside of their little circle seemed like an impossibility. Regardless of that, she was feeling a strange prompting to reach someone, strong enough to make her snap open the facing of her phone.

Her best friend's face flashed through her mind, though she didn't understand why. _Do I really need to talk to someone this badly? _She wondered as she punched the correct button for her floor. She tried to wait out the urge for a few more seconds, but it wasn't going away, but seemed to be actually growing. As she stepped off the elevator, she was already dialing.

Her friend answered groggily on the third ring, as Sarah tried to repress how stupid she felt for waking her up.

"Erin, hey...it's me." She said apologetically. "I'm sorry for bothering you. I think I just needed to connect with someone."

"Sarah? What's the matter?" Erin asked, already sounding more awake.

The woman laughed - there was no simple answer to that question. "I wouldn't even know where to start. It's been the crazinest night of my life, and I'm still waiting for it to be over."

"Are you alright? What's going on? I've been worried about you even since we talked last!"

Sarah hesitated, not certain how much she wanted to tell her at this moment. "I'm okay, for the most part. My car's going to need some help, and the guys..."

"Your car?" Erin said cluelessly. "_What _about the guys?"

"Nothing, it was just a mess, but they're safe now. You don't want to know what they've been through. It was hard to see it from this perspective. I'm feeling pretty bad right now. Still waiting on Greg to come back around."

"Well...they had an out provided for them, didn't they?"

"I guess." Sarah said faintly, and then seemed to realize something. "They could be a little stuck at the moment though. They won't be able to head straight home, and we've been nervous about the possibility of exposure at my aunt's house, or even mine now."

Erin didn't say anything for a long moment on her end, and then spoke up again. "Send them _my_ direction."

Sarah laughed nervously. "Be serious babe. I know you wanna meet them, but this is really a difficult as far as the timing is concerned."

"I _am_ being serious. I'd totally make sure no one saw them."

"What about your sister, your roommate?"

"They're not even here, they took off for Gatlinburg. They'd taken the whole week off for camping anyway, so they decided not to waste it. It's just me and the animals Sarah. I swear, you can trust me with this."

"I'm not the one that will need to be convinced. Are you sure about doing this? The turtles are amazing, but they can be a little bit of a handful too."

"I'm sure. Why don't you call them, and then call me back?"

"Uh...alright. I'll see what they say, and I'll call you back either way."

Sarah hung up the phone, and then hesitated a moment before dialing Luke. The man answered hopefully, as if expecting some kind of news from her.

"There's nothing new to report on Greg yet, I'm sorry. The reason I'm calling is that I might um...there might be a safe house for you to retreat to." She told him.

"You make it sound like we're refugees. Does it have a secret closet for all of us to hide in?" Luke said impishly.

"No secret closets, just one of my best friends and her pets."

"You want us to expose the guys to one of your friends?" Luke said uncertainly.

"It's not like that Luke. She already knows about them, she's just never met them in the flesh. I called her a couple of minutes ago, and one thing sort of led to another. She offered for you to come, and I really believe it's the best option you have."

Luke didn't say anything right away. "I need to talk to Tim, and the guys. I sort of thought that we needed another option, but you know how we feel about letting outside people see them."

"Erin's no threat, I promise you." Sarah said quickly. "But I understand your reservations. Just call me back as soon as you can, so we can try to set something up. You don't really want to stay out there on tornado alley, do you?"

"Is that what they call it? It lived up to its' name tonight. Okay, I'll go talk to the others, and try to get a decision wrangled up. I'll call you back."

* * *

"...If Sarah says she's okay, I think we ought go." Michelangelo was the first to speak up in the circle. "We weren't gonna stay here all night anyway, were we?"

"No, we'll have to contact the authorities soon in any case. Lewis won't go unnoticed forever on 42 either." Timothy replied to the turtle.

They had opted to leave Lewis and Lilah exactly where they had fallen, under Tim's instructions not to bother with disturbing the scene.

"Yeah, but we don't know anything _about_ this girl!" Raphael grumbled. "Are we just gonna stumble blindly into some stranger's house?"

"Mikey's right Raph - Sarah wouldn't have pushed for her, if she didn't trust her friend." Leonardo said. "I think we should just do it, unless someone has a better option they're holding out from us."

Neither his brothers, Tim, nor Luke had anything to say to that, so Leonardo threw up his hands a little helplessly.

"Well, what are we waiting for? We're all exhausted, and we won't be able to actually rest until we get out of here." Leonardo continued.

Tim opened his mouth to say something, but was distracted by his vibrating cell-phone at that instant. It was Marcus calling him - he and April had returned to the side of the building to get the Avalanche and the Battle Shell further away from the road.

"Hey Marc, wh--" Tim started, but the man on the other side of the phone immediately cut him off.

"April and I are seeing some_ lights _Tim, definitely heading this direction! We can't really tell what they are from here, but I'm getting kind of a sinking feeling. There's plenty to distract them in the roadway, but do you think that's all they'll do?"

Tim swore under his breath. "We can't risk them seeing the vehicles and connecting them back to this place!"

"_Or_ the more obvious." Marcus said breathlessly. "April and I were thinking of coming around the back, to that exit that the kid said Lilah used? Can you get everyone moving in that direction?"

"Yes, but that still leaves Sarah's car out there. I can't do that either, it's too easy to trace. Darn it, all we needed was another hour!"

"You'll be lucky if you get a quarter of it." Marcus said, suddenly sounding a little shaky. "They're not stopping - there's two cars coming this way!"

Timothy refrained from swearing again, there wasn't time for it. "Get the cars moved into position, I'll put a fire under these guys, and we'll grab Donnie and Jenna!"

* * *

*** You have _one_ person to blame for this, and she shall remain nameless.**


	53. Retreat

Jenna was almost half-asleep herself when Luke burst into the room, and she jolted fully awake when the door crashed into the wall.

"Sheesh Luke, what's your problem?" She mumbled a little sleepily. "You could have woken Donnie!"

"We have to get out here Jen! April and Marc spotted some emergency vehicles close by, _including_ a couple of cops heading straight for us!"

"Wait, _what_? How are we--"

"You and I have to get the guys moving out that passage, the one Nicholas told us about? The others are going to meet us around back, so we've got to get Donnie up right now!"

The young woman scrambled to her feet from her perch beside the turtle on the floor, whose own exhaustion had permitted him to sleep through their entire exchange. With a reluctant sigh, Luke shook Donatello's shoulder, and tugged insistently on his good arm.

"Don, wake up! I'm sorry, we have to move!"

It was a good five seconds before the turtle even responded to his pulling. "Hm?"

"Jenna, help me." Luke urged, coming around so that he could be responsible for for the turtle from his more fragile side.

Between the two of them, they got the groggy turtle upright, and held on as he shifted unsteadily on his feet.

"Wh...what are we doing?" Donatello asked.

"We have to leave." Luke repeated. "The real question is whether or not you're actually capable of making it more than a couple of feet."

"I'm game to try Doc." The purple-banded turtle murmured.

Leonardo stuck his head inside the room at that moment. "Tim's run up front to deal with Sarah's car, he'd said he'd meet us!"

"How on earth does he have time to do that before someone starts poking around this place?" Luke demanded.

"Got me Doc. Knowing him, he's probably got _something_ in his head. How are we in here, ready to go?" Leonardo finished a little urgently.

"Ready or not, we have to." Luke answered. "C'mon Donnie, let's try a few steps together and see what happens. We'll all get out of here one way or another, I promise you that."

* * *

Once again, Timothy was running under an ulterior motive, and going up front to pick-up the Cavalier was only a small part of it. True, the authorities could easily trace the vehicle's owner, and he didn't want the woman to be connected back to any of the strangeness of this evening. But the real urge that was driving him at the moment was a stalling tactic, to distract whoever was arriving from coming inside the building long enough for the others to escape from the back.

As he got closer to the entrance facing Route 42, he grabbed up his cell-phone almost on a whim, and dialed Karina at the hospital.

"Hey, I need you to just listen to me for a minute, alright?" He said at once with no formal greeting. "We've got company down here, the EMS is responding faster than we anticipated. The guys are on their way out, but I'm going to try and keep some people busy for awhile up front, give them some more time."

"What people Tim? You can't afford to get tied up with that scene either!" The woman responded at once.

"I don't think i have a choice, that's why I'm calling you! Talk to your sister for me when you can, I'll probably need help to get out of this. My badge might give me a fraction of leeway, but I don't see myself being able to explain anything that's happened here tonight. Don't freak out, okay? They're cops, not bad guys. Worst thing that they'll do is arrest me. I need to go, I'll call you back if I can."

"Tim, don't hang up the--" Karina started, but couldn't finish the sentence before he'd already cut out. "Phone." She said aloud to herself, suddenly clenching the device in a death grip. "Shoot. _Shoot_!" She proclaimed angrily, as her gaze drifted to the hallway where she knew her sister was resting.

_Screw visiting hours_, she thought with extreme irritation.

Karina looked left and right before she started moving, and then kept a continual eye out for anyone that could be watching. There were three nurses by the station, but they were presently glued to a television set, not paying her any heed whatsoever. With a soft swallow, Karina stole down toward Katherine's room, and slipped inside before someone else would see her.

She ducked around the curtain into the semi-darkness, and found her sister hooked up to an IV on the other side, sleeping comfortably.

"Kat." She kept her voice low, but firm. "Kat, wake up."

The woman stirred instantly, then squinted to focus on her sister's outline. "Kari...hey. What's up? Do we know something about Greg, or--"

"No, sorry. It's Tim, he could be getting himself into a load of trouble right now. Cops are getting too close to the building, and he's serving himself up as a distraction!"

"_Darn it_!" Katherine was fully awake now. "Kari, your phone, where is it?"

"I've got it right here Kat. Is there somebody you can call?"

"I think so, but without the laptop, I don't have access to the numbers! I've got to reach Victoria, she ought be able to find what I need in the Government database." Katherine replied quickly.

* * *

Jenna's mother had slept horribly that night, waking up about every half hour on the hour. Regardless of the fact that the others had tried to reassure her, she knew that their move on the Compound that night was going to be more complicated than they had let on. Even after Jenna had given her the "all clear" signal about an hour earlier, she'd still felt unsettled.

So when the phone rang again, she wasn't the least bit surprised, except to find _Katherine_ on the other end of it.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I need your help." The woman explained. "You can still connect to the Consulates' database from home I hope?"

"Yes, but what am I looking for?" Victoria asked, even as she swung both legs over the mattress.

"I need the listing for General Meyer, he's the acting commander over Wright Patterson."

Victoria repeated the name to herself as she dashed to the corner in the living room, and snagged her reading glasses off the desk. "Hang on, let me get this thing booted up."

She shifted to balance her phone with her ear, so she could use both hands to type and not be forced to hang up on Kat. "Alright...Air Force." Victoria said aloud over the receiver. "This is going to take a few minutes."

"Call me back. I'll get another ball rolling on this end of things in the meantime."

Victoria didn't bother asking Katherine what other ball she could possibly be referring to, and let the woman go so that she could focus completely on finding the information she needed.

As Katherine was starting to dial another number, the door to the hospital room flew open, and an extremely testy nurse jerked the curtain back.

The woman shot an evil eye at Karina. "Miss, you _can't _be here!"

"The heck she can't." Katherine stated evenly. "I've been a captive long enough, and _no one's _gonna tell me what we can and can't do. I checked myself into this place, and I can check myself out!"

"Mrs. Barrows, you're not in your right mind, we're only trying to help you. Don't fight this, we don't want you to hurt yourself." Another distinctly male voice called from behind the nurse, as three orderlies crowded in behind her.

Katherine yanked out of her IV without so much as a blink in their direction. "So help me, if you people try to sedate me, you're going to have a whole new set of problems on your hands! I'm not crazy, I just have an emergency to deal with. I'm a Federal Agent, it's my responsibility! That trumps every stupid rule and regulation that you people have. Now back the heck up! Where are my clothes? Somebody get me my darn clothes this instant!"

* * *

The purple banded turtle ended up needing Luke and Jenna's help to put any kind of speed under his shell. Leonardo took the electric torch to lead their way down the pitch-black passage, concern for Tim growing with every few steps that he took.

_I shouldn't have let him go - not that I actually could have stopped him. None of us seem to have taken up with listening to each other as of late._

Michelangelo had been keeping one eye mostly on where they were going, and the other constantly glancing over at his red-banded brother. Raphael was _not _up to his usual tricks. He could tell that his brother was pushing the absolute limit of what his body would allow him to perform, fearlessly willing himself to keep putting one foot in front of the other, despite the tremendous effort it took.

When the turtle stumbled in his gait, Michelangelo was ready for it, or at least, he thought he was. He tried to steady Raphael at once, but his brother's weight pitched forward without him.

"_Leo_!" Michelangelo's high pitched yell stopped the oldest turtle in his tracks, and brought a flurry of footsteps to the orange-masked turtle's side, who was already kneeling by Raphael.

"Let me see Mike, let me see him!" Luke urged the turtle, and rolled him over quickly with Leonardo's help.

"Brother, he's out cold!" Luke stated after a couple of seconds.

"Doc, can you help me get him back up?" Leonardo asked swiftly.

"Of course, but are you strong enough to handle him on your own?"

"I have to be. I don't think it can actually be much further now - we just have to keep going!"


	54. Stalling

Two police officers were already standing by the Cavalier by the time that Timothy got outside, having taken note of the damage that clearly had nothing to do with the storm.

"Looks like somebody was using it for target practice." Douglas remarked to Grant.

The other was examining the driver's side, much too close for Tim's comfort. "I don't think the car was the target." The second said after a moment. "Take a look, I've got what appears to be blood on this side. I'd say there's more going on here than just a tornado touching down."

Tim put on the calmest demeanor that he could muster as he approached them.

"May I help you gentlemen?" He asked, as if nothing were the least bit unusual about the situation.

"Do you know anything about this vehicle sir?" Grant responded at once. "Have you heard or seen anything out here tonight?"

"Besides the obvious, you mean? Can't say that I have." Tim lied through his teeth. "But then, things have been insane since that thing hit. Generators failed, so we've got no power whatsoever inside. Been a little occupied trying to deal with these issues."

One of the man eyed the building just a little suspiciously, as the other's questioning gaze never left Tim.

"We've got a dead body less than half a mile from here, and now this vehicle that's definitely come under some kind of assault." Grant stated evenly. "Sir, we'd like to have a closer look around, if you don't mind."

"What if I _do_ mind?" Timothy retorted.

Both officers exchanged another look.

"We're going to need to speak with everyone on the premises sir, and your cooperation would be most appreciated." Grant said, with a hint of further conviction.

"Who said anything about other people being around?" Tim replied, for no other purpose than stalling their process.

"You did," Douglas pointed out. "You said _we've_ got no power."

Without further hesitation, Grant turned to the radio that was clipped to his shoulder, and called for further units to come in.

"You have no reason to be on the property." Tim told them.

"It sounds an awful lot like you're trying to hide something sir. I think it's about time that we saw some ID." Grant challenged him outright.

"You want my ID?" Tim repeated, and then offered his badge up to them. "Will this suffice for your inquiries?"

The one with the flashlight took it from him, and studied the shield for a long moment. "NYPD?" He said incredulously. "Little far from home, aren't you? What brings you out to this neck of the woods?"

"I really couldn't say." Tim said evenly.

"It's not every day that a big city boy like yourself turns up on the backside of Xenia." Grant added.

"Stranger things have happened." Tim replied placidly.

"Well then Officer, please do me the grand favor of waiting here with Douglas while he checks out your ID. When back-up arrives, we'll look into the interior. And speak of the devils."

The sight of three additional sets of flashing lights made Timothy hold his breath.

* * *

Luke moved swiftly to get Donatello properly strapped in, while Leonardo and Jenna were handling Raphael together.

"Jen, just go up front, and get this thing moving. We can't afford any more delays. I'll stick back here with the guys." Luke ordered her over his shoulder.

Michelangelo was already buckled in on the same seat where they'd braced Raphael. Slightly trembling fingers traced his brother's skull, as the younger turtle wished that he would wake up. Meanwhile, Donatello seemed to snap slightly out of his dazed condition when Jenna slammed the back doors shut, and something important occurred to him.

"Doc." His voice was slightly desperate, though it didn't register very loudly. "The cameras. The video feed. There's tons of footage of the three of us! Somebody's gonna find it in there!"

Luke whirled back around to face the turtle, pressing him down as he tried to rise. "Donnie, it's okay. Tim thought of that - he used one of those stun weapons to completely fry every CPU in that room. Whatever backlog they had should have been destroyed."

"Where _is_ Tim?" Donatello asked for the fifth time, unaware that he'd been repeating himself.

"He's going to catch up with us." Luke said, more confidently than he really felt.

As the Battle Shell started moving, Leonardo ducked down on the seat next to Donatello, and held out an arm to steady his brother as he slumped against him.

"Why is the light flashing?" Donatello drawled wearily, as his gaze seemed transfixed by the dome light still illuminating the back of the van.

"Try to rest Donnie, and this will all make more sense tomorrow." Luke tried to encourage him.

* * *

The Avalanche and the van were presently bouncing along the gravel road, traveling the opposite direction from Route 42. Marcus glanced in his rear-view mirror again, and then sighed in April's direction.

"Why do I get the feeling Tim was taking some kind of matters into his own hands?" He said tightly.

"Well, he did say that--" April abruptly cut herself off when her phone vibrated. "Just a second Marc."

The woman flipped the facing open, and Katherine's voice greeted her on the other end.

"April, quick! You guys mentioned that Donnie has some kind of a flash drive, something he used to download the contents of Lilah's computer from the Technology Center. Tell me that you still have it!"

"We still have it, it's in the case with my laptop." April replied at once. "But what's going on Kat? I thought you were being treated."

"I've postponed that for the moment, because our newest member has decided to try and take the fall for_ everyone_!"

"What are you saying? Are you telling that Tim--"

"Is probably getting himself into royal trouble, yeah, that's what I'm saying. I've contacted someone locally for assistance in this matter, but I'm going to need proof to back-up my claims, and I need it fast! The Commander over Wright Patterson is on his way over here, and it would be nice if this evidence gets here before _he_ does!"

April only hesitated for a beat of silence. "You've got it Kat, Marc and I will head that direction."

"Good - let me know when you're close, and I'll tell you how to find us."

* * *

Luke and Marcus were discussing strategy a couple of minutes later, as they picked their way along the back unmarked road, hoping to find something that would lead to civilization.

"You'd already made up your mind about this anyway, hadn't you?" Marcus asked him. "Just get the guys to that 'safe house', and you let April and I worry about getting to Katherine."

"I can't believe we just left him back there. This is so wrong!" Luke fumed in frustration.

"None of us knew what he was planning to do Luke. _Focus_. You have to protect the guys, and just let us do this." Marcus said firmly. "It's going to be alright, I know it will. Katherine is the queen of fast talk, remember? Tim couldn't have a better person in his corner for this." As Marcus finished the sentence, he noticed the first actual road sign that had come up. "Yes, here we go! Now we're talking. Let me know when you get settled, and I'll pass on anything to you as it comes up as well."

"Okay Marc." Luke said tiredly. "Just try to get to the hospital in one piece, you hear me?"

"I do believe that you're confusing my driving with_ yours'_."

"I recall a certain someone getting pulled over by a state-trooper doing ninety once." Luke reminded the man glibly. "And Jenna's not there to talk you out of it this time."

* * *

"Let me get this straight." Grant was close to seething by this moment. "You have_ no _explanation for the men imprisoned behind these walls?"

Tim stared back at the man coolly, and shook his head after a moment. "None that I'm at liberty to discuss at this time."

"Do you even realize how this makes you look? We need to get some real answers from you, starting right now!" Grant proclaimed, inches away from his face. "Don't you believe for one second that we won't lock you up."

Tim smiled a little defiantly, merely relieved that it seemed the others had made a clean break from the property. "You can do whatever you want with me, but I've got nothing to say on the matter. That's my right."

"Have it your way." Grant shrugged. "Hands behind your back please."

The smile never left Tim's face, even as he was being handcuffed against the side of the car.

"The one thing I will tell you, is that you don't want to let any of those men escape." Tim informed the officer handling him.

"Escape?" Douglas snapped. "We still haven't even gotten those doors open."

Tim actually chuckled out loud. "Right...there's a real trick to that."

"This is funny to you? Do you think we're playing around?" Grant demanded severely.

"Y'know, after the things I've already faced down tonight, this is incredibly mild in comparison." Tim replied. "You'll get your answers soon enough. But you're not hearing it from my mouth, I don't have that kind of authority."

"Douglas, I've heard enough of this junk. Just put him in the car, get him out of my sight before I do something I'll regret." Grant ordered the other man, and stalked back in the direction of the Compound once more.


	55. Risks

A particularly rough bump in the road succeeded in startling Raphael awake. He jerked his head upright off the seat, and instantly felt someone's fingers trying to guide him back down.

"It's okay Raph," He heard his youngest brother's voice. "Take it slow."

"Don't take it at _all_." Luke spoke up after the him, unbuckling from his seat-belt so that he could get over to the two of them.

Raphael turned slightly in the direction of the doctor's voice, and searched him out in the semi-darkness. "What happened?" He murmured. "How long have I been here?"

"Well, we were trying to escape, and you decided to take a nap. Your timing could have been a little better." Michelangelo couldn't resist giving him a small grin.

Raphael gave him a slightly dark look, but then released a shaky breath. "Are we all here, is everyone okay?"

Luke nodded as he bent closer to the turtle, and flashed his pen-light near his eyes. "Everything will be alright. Can you open your eyes any wider for me?"

The pupils were still dilated, and slightly slow to respond to his light. Raphael _wasn't_ too out of it to notice how Luke's shoulders stiffened considerably. "What Doc?" He had the presence of mind to ask.

"You haven't been experiencing any gaps, have you?" Luke asked, without bothering to answer the question. "Trouble remembering things from the last few days?"

"Now that you mention it, I've got no clue_ where _I've been." The turtle answered sarcastically.

"_Raph_." Leonardo called out reproachfully. "Lose the attitude, huh? He's here to help you."

The red-banded turtle sighed softly. "Sorry Doc. No gaps, no forgetting. Just a bunch of hurt."

"You've got a bad concussion. I'm not trying to get on your nerves here with this stuff, I'm just concerned because of your past experiences." Luke replied honestly.

"I'll let you know if I forget anything important." Raphael cracked a smile for him, and then shifted a little stiffly on the seat. "Have we heard anything from Tim? Is he behind us?"

"No, but I have heard from Kat. She's assured me she's taking care of things, whatever that actually means." Luke replied.

"How's Donnie?" The red-banded turtle asked next.

His now once more blue-masked brother glanced at Donatello with a mixture of fondness and relief, who was still lying against his shoulder.

"He's kind of dead to the world." Leonardo chuckled. "But I'm sure he's better off that way."

"I hate it say it, but I'm probably going to be forced to wake his shell up every couple of hours." Luke grumbled with a little frustration. "He was manifesting like he could have a concussion too, though it could just be symptoms of the exhaustion. Either way, I need to make sure he's waking up properly."

"He's gonna be okay, isn't he Doc?" Michelangelo asked. "He's just tired?"

"Tired and _hurt _Mike. I want to take every precaution, you know I don't like leaving things to chance."

The orange-masked turtle settled back against the seat with an inward groan. The simple joy of finding his brothers was being slowly replaced by lingering anxiety for them, as well as for Greg, and what on earth was going on with Timothy. Raphael's eyes suddenly locked with his from his position lying on the seat, as if the turtle sensed Michelangelo tensing.

"Mikey, it's Don." Raphael said pointedly. "He's gonna be okay, you have to know that."

"Do you have any idea what I had to do?" Michelangelo wavered slightly. "Back at the Technology Center, when we got into trouble?"

Raphael started to shake his head on an impulse, but thought better of it. "The only thing I remember about that place was sitting outside, and falling for their ridiculous trap like the idiot shell-head that I am." Raphael muttered in return.

"I had to leave him." Mike said quietly. "He got stunned, and I couldn't help him. I could barely help _myself_."

"You saved his life tonight." Raphael said as firmly as he could. "Shell, you probably saved all of us by getting out of there when you did."

"He's right Mike, you know we couldn't have found them without Donatello's technology." Luke added. "You did the right thing."

Michelangelo shook his head in serious irritation. "Explain something to me, 'cause I just don't get it. I can bail on my brother, and you tell me it's the right thing. But what about you guys? Why's it okay for you to sacrifice _yourselves_, like Tim just did back there? We're supposed to turn tail and run, while one of you tries to take the wrap for everything?"

"Mike, everything's going to be alright. I know Kat is moving quickly to help him." Luke tried to keep his own tone very calm, to convey the same sense to the turtle.

"She shouldn't HAVE to!" Michelangelo exploded. "Don't you get what I'm saying at all? This isn't the first time one of you have been threatened because of trying to protect us, and it won't be the last!"

"Mikey." Leonardo called out from across the back of the van. "Don't do this, please? I know you're upset, but it's not going to help anything."

The orange-masked turtle shut his mouth with a scowl, and focused an intense stare on the sidewall of the van.

"So this isn't just about Tim." Luke said after an uncomfortable moment of silence, and the turtle shook his head fiercely without looking at him.

"I went along with everything tonight, 'cause there wasn't any way that I could stop you." Michelangelo stated bluntly. "But I didn't agree with any of it. When I think about the ridiculous risk the three of you took going after them, it still makes me feel sick! And on top of that, I managed to put Sarah in danger too." The turtle finished a little more quietly. "It was stupid, and reckless...And the thing with Tim just caps everything off. Times like this, I'm not sure it's really worth it."

Raphael sat up slightly on his elbows, fighting to get a closer glimpse of his youngest brother. "You act like we're the only ones allowed to take risks Mike."

"You wouldn't be saying that if_ Karina _had been the one knocking down that door." Mike said plainly.

"No, I would have hated it, been just as ticked as you." Raphael replied. "But we don't get to control our friends, anymore than they tell _us_ what to do Mikey. We throw ourselves into trouble head-first all the time, and none of them complain about it. We don't have the right to tell 'em to back off either. They're a part of this, that's just the way it is. Whether we like it or not, they'd give their lives for us, just as soon as we'd do it for them. You're gonna have to live with that." The red-masked turtle finished a little haggardly. "Now can you shut your mouth for a few minutes at least? My head's already buzzing as it is."

Michelangelo reached out a little tentatively toward him, gripping his shoulder for an instant. "Yeah...sorry bro." He mumbled under his breath.

* * *

When Karina didn't answer her phone, Sarah came down from ICU on foot to find the woman herself. When she walked back into the waiting room, she was startled to see Katherine in the corner, in the midst of a animated discussion with an official looking individual. Sarah made a beeline for where Karina was silently waiting, and grabbed a seat next to her.

"What in the world did I miss?" The woman asked in confusion.

"It's a long story. Kat's just being forced to move on the Air Force faster than she thought she'd have to. It was going to come up anyway, but she had to speed things along to help Tim."

"Tim? Why, what's wrong with him?" Sarah asked cluelessly.

"Oh not much, he just stuck himself right in the center of a couple cops trying to do some investigating out in Xenia."

The elevator chimed, and a familiar red-head barrelled off of it. She looked left and right, then dashed into the waiting room, right past the two waiting women.

"Catch up with you in a second, I have to get something over to Kat!" April said, without stopping for a breath.

Katherine let out a breath of her _own_ when she saw April coming. "General, this is the information that I was referring to." Kat said at once, and held up a hand to stop April from leaving. "Can you get it set up to the right place for us?" She requested of the woman, pointing to the laptop that the Commander had brought at Katherine's direction.

With a bit of a nervous twitch April obeyed, dragging a chair over so she could work right next to the table, and started recalling the information that had been saved in a more helpful location.

"My partner and I unintentionally stumbled onto something, that we weren't even remotely looking for." Katherine continued the conversation that had already been in progress. "We came to Dayton for the express purpose of tracking a dangerous genius of a criminal. But it was all a set-up, right from the start. He wanted us to find him, he made sure that we did."

"What did he want from you?" Meyer had to ask.

"It wasn't really us that he wanted, but someone that's...connected to us." Kat faltered for a moment. "His purpose was to use us as bait to get who he actually needed. In the process of the search, _they_ were able to discover the dirty truth about Lilah Stone, and the Technology Center she was running." Katherine glanced over at April. "Where are we at?"

"I have it up." The woman answered, and the backed off as Katherine reached for the computer.

"Lilah Stone and Isaac Stolle used the contracts you made with them to gain access to your database, and to take advantage of you. They stole your technology, and Stolle was able to recreate it. You'll find several examples of it still intact at the building I told you about in Xenia. This flash drive contains information that was obtained at great risk, and it ended up costing them dearly. It has all of the evidence you could want of tactical plans and stolen designs, all taken from Stone's personal computer at the Center." Katherine explained.

"How did they come by said information?" The General asked her.

Katherine hesitated a couple of seconds. "If you want my help, you're going to have to accept that I can't tell you everything. There are identities that I have to protect, of people who come from many walks of life."

"Including police officers?" The man snorted. "You have to understand how strange this looks."

"I do." She answered. "But he's not there under the authority of his own department, obviously. He was leading a strike team that capitalized on the opportunity that the tornado created, in order to rescue my partner and I. My partner, who is still upstairs in a coma as we speak, because of what these people did to him."

"Whose authority does this Long respond to them? Who sent this team?"

Again, Katherine hesitated. "I can't explain that to you."

The man folded both arms in front of his chest. "So I'm expected to take your word for all of this? I need something real Agent, something tangible. Who do they report to?"

"No one." Katherine replied. "They don't work directly for anyone, and they aren't connected to an organization. They're invisible, or at least they're supposed to be."

"Well one of your men just became_ very _visible Agent. What do you expect me to do about it?"

Katherine detached Donatello's flash drive from the laptop. "I told you that this was acquired at tremendous risk. Government technology,_ your _Bases' specialities fell into the hands of dangerous criminals. Now would you rather that I hand it over to you with no questions asked, and everything stay completely under wraps, or do I need to contact the media about this breach of security? It should make an interesting follow-up story for the continuing coverage of several of the deceased homeless population in Dayton. Men and women who were tested on and killed by the weapon your Base created, that got stolen right out from underneath you. Yes, that would go over well, wouldn't it?"


	56. Freedom

It was a little after 2 in the morning by the time Jenna was pulling the Battle Shell back into the sleepy Kettering neighborhood, and searching for the street number that Sarah had relayed to her over the phone. When she found the right one, she hopped out of the van and circled around to the back, where she knocked firmly on the doors.

"Come with me Luke." She told the man when he popped his head out. "I want to get a feel for this girl before she lays one eye on them."

Both humans walked up to the door of the quiet looking house, and Jenna knocked three times, before taking one step backward.

After a few seconds the door opened to partially reveal a young woman in glasses. Luke was _about_ to say something to her, when she inexplicably shut the door, and both he and Jenna heard what sounded like a serious scuffle on the other side of it.

"What the heck?" Jenna almost exploded. "Luke, maybe we should just get out of here."

"Wait." He commanded her.

Roughly a minute passed before the door opened again, wider this time.

"I'm sorry." The young woman stated a little breathlessly. "I forgot to put up the dogs."

"Dog_s_, as in more than one?" Jenna repeated. "Oh, Mike's gonna love that. You _are_ Erin, aren't you?"

The woman nodded her head, dark pony-tail bouncing along with it. "Yeah, but if we're going to meet, we should probably do it _inside_."

"We agree with that whole-heartedly, but you won't mind if we have a look around first?" Luke asked evenly. "You'll forgive our suspicions, but you know who we're protecting."

The woman nodded a second time, and stepped aside to let the humans into the house. Erin normally would have showed them around herself, but at this moment she was too transfixed over by the door, staring at the Battle Shell as if to convince herself that it was actually _there_, sitting in her driveway. Luke and Jenna were thorough in their search, taking their time to look through every room and closet before returning to the front door.

"Alright - would you mind giving us a hand?" Jenna asked her. "Luke and I have got to help a couple of them, and it'd be great if you could just help keep an eye out for anyone else."

"Yeah, sure." Erin agreed with a small swallow, tingling slightly with excitement as she followed them outside to the van.

Luke performed the signal on the back door, and Leonardo tentatively stuck his head out.

"We're clear?" The blue-banded turtle asked.

"Hence the knock Leo. C'mon out, so we can go ahead and deal with your brothers." Luke encouraged him.

Leonardo cast a dark-eyed glance at Erin, who'd wisely managed to withhold the squeal that was dying to get out. Now probably wasn't the best time for it.

Michelangelo appeared next, taking a deep breath of the fresh air as he emerged from the van. "Ah, the suburbs. I can almost hear the ice cream trucks and the--"

Jenna shot him a warning look. "Get in the house Mikey."

Raphael shrugged off their hands the moment that he was on his own two feet in the driveway. "I'm _cool_ you guys. Just worry about Donnie, alright?"

His amber gaze pierced through Erin for a moment, before he took a couple of shuffling steps in the direction of the house. As he crossed under the door frame into the living room, a small shadow darted across his path, flying up the staircase in front of him. He caught himself grinning at the retreating cat, as it made him think about Tiger back at home.

Donatello groaned softly, but never once opened his eyes as the humans got him into the house. As Erin shut and locked the door behind them, it cued another round of barking from one of the back bedrooms.

Michelangelo's head shot up from the couch cushion he'd been leaning against instantly. "What's that? Nobody said anything about dogs."

"Well, we have a Jack Russell--" Erin started, only to be instantly cut off by the turtle.

"Is the thing on _steroids_?"

"No, that's the German Shepherd." Erin explained to him, and the turtle's blue eyed gaze immediately fell on Luke.

"Know what? I'm good, I think I'm just gonna go sleep in the van."

* * *

Tim was dozing on the cot in the holding cell, when the seriously peeved officer entered the room.

"Hey Long, get on your feet!" Grant called to him.

The man opened one eye, and sat up very slightly on his side. "No. No more talking - I told you I've got nothing to say to you."

"We got that message loud and clear _007_. Your ride is here." Grant replied sarcastically.

"My what?"

"You're out of here. Now get on your feet, and stop wasting my time." The man's frustration was glaringly obvious.

Timothy rose off the cot a little lazily, stretching a long moment for effect. "You mean we won't get to share any more scintillating chats? That's a crying shame."

"Shut your mouth, and get out of there before I drag you out myself."

"You'd like to try, wouldn't you?" Tim smirked a little at the man.

"Come _on_." The man commanded again, and Timothy still took his time a little bit sauntering out of the cell.

"You really think you're a big shot, don't you?" Grant challenged.

"What I am is my own business." Tim stated amiably. "Where's my stuff?"

"It's waiting for you, if you could ever actually get your legs moving."

* * *

Marcus was waiting for him nearby, and released a sigh of pent-up anxiety when he saw the man.

"So I'm ready, are you ready?" Timothy asked him casually, as the doctor shook his head at him.

"_More_ than ready. Are you alright?"

Tim shrugged. "Sure, what'd you expect? I told you, they're cops - not the enemy."

But he couldn't resist flashing another teasing smile in Grant's direction before they walked out the door.

"Buh-bye." Tim called with a wave of one hand.

Marcus gave him a weird look the moment they were outside. "I think you enjoyed that too much." He chided him.

"Aw, what's the use of having powerful friends if you can't gloat about them every now and then?" Timothy chuckled. "But seriously, what happened? Where do we stand at this moment?"

Marcus motioned for him to keep moving toward the Avalanche, and fell into step beside him. "Kat just made a deal, that's all. She and Greg will keep quiet about the security breach, turn over all the evidence to the Air Force, and in return, the whole situation becomes classified. Meaning of course, they won't even be required or allowed to give a true explanation of events to the FBI." Marcus finished with a grin.

"So...no investigating us, nothing like that?"

"Nope. You never existed as far as they're concerned. Did you end up telling the police anything at all?"

"No, I figured it was better to stay silent, and let Kat provide the explanation."

"You're a wise man Captain Long, even if you do have a sacrificial streak."

* * *

At her sister's and April's prompting, Katherine agreed to return to a room to resume the treatment that had been started. She was feeling incredibly sore, aching from practically everywhere at once. The fresh burns she'd acquired from the last round of the energy rifle had been throbbing painfully ever since she'd been back on her feet, making her long for rest even more. It didn't take a true fight from the others to get her to return to bed.

Karina accompanied her back to the room, and none of the staff said a single word about it, leaving the two to finish up after Katherine had been hooked up to an IV again.

"So you never...um...Brandon doesn't know that I ever went missing, does he?" Katherine asked her.

Karina shook her head. "No. I was ready to call him if I needed to, but..."

"We can't keep this up Kari. Somehow or another, we have to tell him. We _have_ to. This isn't fair to him." Katherine said softly.

"I know it isn't." Karina agreed. "But I'm scared too. I feel so guilty for hiding from him this way, but how is he going to react to all of this Kat? Will he even be able to understand about Raph and me? I'm not ashamed of him, I'm _not_. But I'm afraid that Brandon won't get it, that the protective big brother is going to come charging out of him."

"I don't know how he'll take it Kari. But I _do_ know that we have to stop hiding eventually. This is the wrong thing to do. We're the only family he has." Katherine finished.

* * *

Sarah was asleep with her own head on her shoulder, among about half a dozen other people lounging around the semi-darkness of the waiting room outside ICU. She'd been praying intermittently, until the words had started jumbling together into weary nonsense.

"Ma'am?" Someone's light hand on her shoulder roused her with a small jerk.

"Yeah, I'm here." Sarah sat up further immediately.

"You're the one waiting for Greg Heffernan?" The slightly familiar charge nurse asked her.

"Yeah." Sarah repeated, feeling more awake at once. "Do you have information for me?"

"He's come around a little, and his oxygen levels have improved. Not enough to be taken off the respirator yet, but his prognosis is looking better from since he first arrived."

"Can anyone see him?" She decided to try and ask.

"Not now." The woman answered. "I just wanted to let you know that he seems to finding his way out of the woods. Hopefully, he'll be at Grandma's house by tomorrow." The nurse added a little impishly, getting a smile out of Sarah.

"Alright, thank you." Sarah replied to her, and watched the nurse silently as she walked away.

The young woman tugged her zippered sweat-shirt a little tighter around her shoulders, as she caught herself smiling a second time.

_I __knew__ I liked him too much to let him go_, she thought ironically, as she withdrew her cell-phone from her pocket. It wasn't much, but at least it was something she could share with the others.


	57. Weakness

Michelangelo was already softly snoring on the couch, despite his previous reservations. Both of his brothers had still noticed that he kept one of his nunchucks balled in his fist protectively while he slept.

Leonardo sat up slightly in the chair he was reclining in, as he heard Raphael shifting yet again on the other couch. The blue-banded turtle was more than ready to get some sleep of his own, but something was still bothering his brother, enough that he wasn't sleeping even though he really needed to.

"Raph?" Leonardo called softly out to him, and the red-masked turtle only grunted in response. "What's wrong?" He continued.

"I'm okay Fearless." He mumbled vaguely in return.

Leonardo quietly rose, and came to drop down on the carpet beside the edge of the couch. "That's not true. Why aren't you asleep?"

"Why aren't you?" Raphael growled back.

"Because I know _you're_ not."

"Leo, it's nothin'. I just haven't been able to turn it off yet."

The older turtle stared at him pensively for a few seconds. He knew that it probably wasn't about Greg - they'd already received news on that front that he was doing a little better. Yet something was still troubling Raphael acutely.

"I'd leave you alone faster if you'd talk to me." Leonardo pointed out to him.

"Aw, c'mon Leo. Do we have to get into it right now?"

"You're not sleeping, so why not?"

Raphael rolled amber eyes at him in the darkness. "You're a pain in the shell, y' know that?"

"You drive me to it."

The red-banded turtle rested both hands behind his head, and turned to stare up at the ceiling for a moment. "I ain't used to this Leo. I wanna bounce back like I always could before. Falling out tonight...it's just depressing. He really _did_ break me, didn't he?"

"No." Leonardo said emphatically. "Stolle didn't break _you _Raph. You weren't yourself at the time, you know that better than anybody. He doesn't hold any power over you, and fortunately, he'll never be able to touch any of us again."

"You wanna hear something crazy Fearless?" Raphael muttered. "I almost _wanted _him to hurt me again, just so I could prove to myself that I wouldn't cave. I know that has to sound whacked out, but I'd feel better if I knew for sure."

"You have to let this go Raph." Leonardo told him quietly. "I know that's easy to say, and a lot harder to do. But you could end up torturing yourself with thoughts like this for a long time, and it isn't worth that. _He's_ not worth that."

The blue masked turtle rested his back against couch further, hesitating for an instant before going on. "I think all of us have trouble differentiating what strength actually is sometimes. You in particular tend to want to work through stuff on your own anyway, or to interpret certain things as weakness, that really aren't. Your body gave out tonight because it'd been through so much already, and then you were still forced to push it further. That's not a testament to your weakness, just the opposite in my mind. It would have been very easy to give up before you got to that point, but you didn't. You didn't hold anything back. That being said, I still wish you had an easier time asking for and accepting help when you need it."

Leonardo paused again, taking a slightly shaky breath. "I never believed that Stolle would succeed in breaking you or Donatello. Even that footage Lilah showed me of Don...I figured that Stolle was seriously hurting him, but I couldn't accept that he'd given in completely. I thought he'd die before that ever happened."

The blue-masked turtle reached suddenly for Raphael's arm in the darkness. "Don't do this to yourself Raph. There's no sense in living under torment for what could have happened."

Raphael still didn't say anything for a long moment, before speaking a little haltingly. "I'm not...not the same Leo. Not completely. I still feel like something's off missing somewhere...and I can't help but wonder if I'll ever really get it back."

His brother sat up further still, so he could get a better glimpse of his face. "Raph, it takes_ time_. I felt off for months after Vale got his hands on us initially...and what you went through was so much bigger than that. You're bound to still feel confused inside, maybe even a little lost. But when I look at you, I still see my brother. Stolle didn't take that away from you."

The red-masked turtle found himself absent-mindedly massaging throbbing temples again, as he thought about an appropriate response. "I can't afford to be weak Leo." He said with difficulty, as if ashamed to speak it out loud.

"If it were Don or Mikey going through this, would you still think of it that way?"

Raphael swallowed hard before forcing himself to respond. "No."

"You and I have always tended to take on this role Raph, to demand things of ourselves that we'd never put on someone else. And it's not fair." Leonardo said evenly. "You take on a tremendous amount of pressure, trying to constantly be strong enough for everyone else."

"Are you the only one allowed to do that?" The red-masked turtle couldn't help asking.

"I'm still working on it too Raph." Leonardo told him seriously.

"Hey." An authoratative voice cut in on the both of them. "Lights out was an hour ago. That means sleep _now_."

Raphael snickered under his breath as Leonardo pulled his frame off of the floor, and returned to his chair.

"Dang, Kat's _gotta_ get pregnant so that Doc will get off our shells every now and then." Raphael offered to his brother.

"I heard that. Don't make me come in there!" The man spoke up a second time.

"Why Doc? What are you gonna do about it?" Raphael raised his voice one last time.

"Are you forgetting that I'm always packing a sedative now? Go to sleep before I bust you one."

* * *

All three turtles slept deeper than usual, well into the next afternoon. Erin had left the house in the late morning to pick up a couple of things from the grocery store, having been completely unprepared to provide for this much company.

Michelangelo had been the first to rouse, and was yawning widely as Jenna was entering the room.

"Hey Mikey. How you feeling?" The woman greeted him fondly.

"Okay. Had the weirdest dream that it was like the longest night of my life or something." He said jokingly, but then gave her a more serious look. "How's Donnie?"

"Out like a light. I think that he might sleep for a week." The woman replied, as she curled up on the opposite end of the couch from the turtle. "Mike you did good last night." She said thoughtfully. "I can't tell you how glad I am that you were there, through this whole mess. It would have been a lot harder to deal with if you hadn't been."

"You guys did most of it." Mike said at once.

Jenna ran a hand through her raven hair, as she crossed both legs underneath her on the couch. "Thank you for saving my husband Mikey. I know he's_ your _brother and everything...but he means an awful lot to me too. All of you do for that matter."

The orange-masked turtle stretched over to give the woman a hug. "You're the best thing that ever happened to Donnie Jen. And at times like this, I'm even more glad you're here than usual. I just wanna make sure that you actually get to stick around." He finished a little sternly.

"Hey, talk to Tim, alright? He's the one who got himself left behind last night." Jenna deflected.

"You took a few massive risks there yourself."

"And you're not gonna let me hear the end of it for awhile, are you?" Jenna cracked a smile. "Hopelessly protective, that's what all of you are. How do you think I feel every time _you_ guys do something crazy?"

"You've been there right along side us, more often than not."

* * *

When Erin got back from the store, she immediately went to work in the kitchen frying up some sausage, an act that always had the curious effect of rousing the two older turtles from years of experience. Raphael stretched languidly and sat up on the couch, to find himself face to face with a grey cat that was peering at him with what looked like open curiosity.

Erin had just walked into the living room to ask them about drinks, as Raphael slowly held out a palm toward the animal to see what the cat would do. The feline simply stared at him placidly, even allowing the turtle to get a hand on him.

"Cool cat." Raphael remarked. "It took Tiger almost five days before she let me get that close, and that was after I saved her life."

"Tory is a tough one." Erin replied. "Gincy does a lot of hiding around strangers, and Picasso keeps to himself mostly because he's not really used to the dogs."

"Tory?" Raphael repeated.

"Yeah, it's short for Tortuga." Erin answered with a grin.

"You named your _cat_ 'turtle'?"

"That's right, it's Spanish. How'd you know that?"

"Oh, that's easy." Mike volunteered from the other couch. "It's 'cause Karina--"

"Say one more word Mike." Raphael interrupted with a challenge. "I dare you to say it, and see what happens."

Michelangelo seemed to think about it for a few seconds, before plunging ahead. "It's one of Karina's pet names for him."

"Mikey, when I get my hands on you, you're so _dead_!"

"I think that would actually require you to move Raph." Michelangelo laughed out loud.

His red-masked brother pointed a finger at him warningly. "My memory is _long_ bonehead."

"Anyway." Leonardo spoke up dismissively over the two of them. "Sarah told us that you're a writer too?" He said curiously to Erin.

"Yeah, but I lean toward the futuristic. You know, science fiction, space travel, that kind of thing. You guys have nothing to worry about as far as I'm concerned."

"That's nice to hear at least." Raphael muttered. "We've got enough Authors busting our shells. It's a wonder we even get a chance to breathe."


	58. Waking

It was early evening before Greg's mind fully rallied for the first time. When he laid his eyes on the hospital room, he was absolutely shocked. To be honest, he hadn't expected to wake up again period - let alone in this kind of environment. The man blinked rapidly, as if he expected the scene to change before his eyes. The next thought to cross through his mind was an inkling of doubt, wondering if any of that had actually been real to start with.

He pondered on the possibility, as he tried to take stock of his own physical condition. The ligature marks on his wrists were a clear indication that none of it had been imagined. Greg was further convinced when one hand came to rest on his tender nose, which he recalled being broken that very first day. It was no nightmare, at least not the kind that you're asleep through.

His eyes were still a little heavy as he then tried to focus on the last thing that he could remember had happened. He had a split-second mental picture of Raphael, looking uncharacteristically anxious about something. _Raphael_, he thought with a sudden surge of energy._ If I'm here, then they must have gotten out too. Unless we were discovered by someone else, in which case..._Greg wasn't going to allow himself to finish that line of thought.

Well, he wasn't going to get any answers lying here all by himself. He began searching with both hands on the sides of the bed, trying to locate the remote that had to be around here somewhere, with a call-button for the nurse. The next few were a blur, as a number of individuals were in and out of the room, testing his vitals and trying to get him to talk.

Greg staunchly refused to say anything, except that he wanted to see his partner or friends. The fifth person that didn't seem to be able to get any cooperation out of him finally turned to the phone, to locate where Katherine actually was in the hospital. To Greg's intense surprise, the woman turned up outside his door less than ten minutes later.

"I can't believe they really let you in here." Greg's voice still sounded raw.

"I don't think anyone in this hospital will try telling me what to do again - I made my point pretty firmly last night." She replied.

Greg cracked a half smile at her. "What on _earth_ happened last night James?"

"There's a lot to tell Greg. It's probably better to hold off on the main details for right now, but I'll cover the most important facts for you. Everyone is alive, safe, and they're going to be alright. Lilah and Lewis are dead, and they caught everyone else involved."

"Who's they?" He had to ask.

Katherine shook her head at him. "You'd have a conniption if I told you this second. Trust me, it's better that I wait."

"Hold up, did they get Williams too?" Greg pressed her.

"He's dead." Katherine informed him. "For days actually, thanks to Donatello."

Greg managed another partial smile at that. "I'll have to shake his hand the next time I see him. So, I missed a lot, huh?"

"Just an F-4 tornado, among other things." Kat said impishly.

"You're joking."

"I wouldn't, not about that." She replied, her strong gaze suddenly faltering a little. "You look like hell partner."

"Feel like it too." He admitted. "Are _you_ honestly okay?" Greg hadn't missed the fact that Katherine wasn't in her real clothes either.

"I feel like I got off lightly compared to the rest of you." Katherine replied. "Lucky thing too, because I still had to do some scrambling last night. The good part is that I've already been in contact with the Air Force, and worked out a deal with them to get the entire event classified. We won't need to worry about coming up with a story for the FBI."

"_Sheesh_, you're quick James. How did you pull that off?"

"I had to push it further than I normally would have, but it paid off. One of our 'rescuers' needed a little rescuing himself, and I didn't want him to have to wait around in some stinking lock-up, or risk the dumb cops letting any of those idiots go free."

Greg made a soft sound that was nearly a chuckle. "I'm out of it for one day, and the whole world goes crazy." Then he turned an imploring glance in her direction. "Do you think you could help me make a phone call?"

Katherine picked up the nearby hand-held receiver. "Alright, who am I dialing?"

* * *

Raphael's phone slipped through his fingers when he tried to open it, and it ended up on the carpet. Timothy immediately scooped it up off the floor, and handed it back to the turtle.

"Hello?" He said uncertainly to the unfamiliar number.

"Raph, hey. It's me." A somewhat haggard but still recognizable voice greeted him on the other end.

"_Heff_, you're up!" The turtle couldn't keep from exclaiming.

"In a manner of speaking." The man replied. "Its good to hear your voice."

"Not as good as it is to hear yours. Shell, you about scared me to death Greg!"

"Sorry about that." Greg said with a soft sigh. "But I'm not going anywhere, so you don't have to worry, okay?"

"You'd better be taking it easy, you hear me?" Raphael said a little tensely. "Rest up, so you can get out of there."

"Raph, thanks for being there. I know I was a mess...I'm sure you got tired of my rambling."

"You weren't rambling Heff, and you don't have to be sorry for anything. I'm just glad that you're talking period. It was a heck of a night."

"That's what I understand, though I don't have all the details about it yet."

"You'll hear everything soon." Raphael assured him. "But in the meantime, don't push it okay? Seriously."

Greg grinned tiredly, as though the turtle could see him. "Yes Mother." He finished sardonically.

* * *

It was after 9pm that evening before Donatello was truly awake, and all three of his brothers had been allowed to make their way upstairs to Erin's room. The young woman had volunteered her own bed for the turtle, a fact that didn't surprise Sarah in the least. After all, this was the same woman who'd given up her own bed for _her _when she'd taken refuge with her from a long-standing power outage after the "Great Wind Storm" of 2008. That was just the kind of person she was.

While the boys retreated upstairs, Sarah took the moment to catch up with Erin alone for the first time.

"Thanks again for opening up this way for them. It really took a load off my mind." Sarah thanked her.

Erin shrugged. "It's been fun. Raph managed to make friends with Tory."

"That's a serious compliment to your cat." Sarah remarked. "He's really not into animals like that. Tiger's the only one who's ever borne that designation for him."

"Well, Tory wasn't afraid of him, so that might have had something to do with it. And I learned something you don't know." The woman finished with a bit of a high-pitched giggle.

"About what Erin?"

"Just don't mention Tory's full name in front of Raph, he's kind of sensitive about it."

* * *

Donatello verily beamed at the sight of his brothers, despite the fact that he hardly had the energy to sit up.

"Good to see ya Genius." Were the first words out of Raphael's mouth. "It's been too long." He meant to add jokingly, but couldn't hide the tinge of intense relief from surfacing.

"You too Raph." He responded, his voice nowhere near as strong as usual.

Raphael cleared his throat, and then went on. "So what's the deal huh? I heard you hogged Williams all for yourself."

"Yeah Raph, I _hogged_ him alright." The purple-banded turtle said with a slight shake of his head. "Sorry I didn't stop to consider you, but he was pretty determined to kill me at the time."

Raphael snorted. "That moron had no idea who he was dealing with. Donnie, I...I'm proud of you. That can't have been an easy feat."

"Not really," He answered, "And I didn't enjoy it at all, as much as some people probably think I _would_."

Leonardo drew closer to his side, and as Donatello laid eyes on his oldest brother, he still felt like he needed to pinch himself out of a dream.

"Don't allow any guilt over him Don." Leonardo advised. "You know deep down that you were only defending yourself, and that's what really matters. How's the wrist feeling?"

"It's okay, a small price to pay for jumping out of a moving vehicle. I could have broken something much more vital."

"How _did_ you get out Donnie?" Mike spoke up from his position on the floor.

"When I took out Williams, I had a couple of minutes alone with him. I swiped his key, managed to hide it on my person. It didn't do me any favors while I was strapped to that chair, but once they had my wrists together...it made it a _little_ easier for me."

They talked upstairs for a good twenty minutes, before the two older turtles forced themselves to tear away from him. Donatello was nearly looking like he would nod off again, even in mid-sentence. Mike had been about to follow them, when Donatello called him back with half-closed eyes.

"Mikey...wait."

The orange-masked turtle returned to his side, kneeling back down by the bed. "Yeah Donnie? You need anything else?"

"Thank you for listening to me." He said softly. "I know how hard that had to be."

Michelangelo bit his lip as tears threatened again, at the thought of being separated from his brother on that awful night. "It was rotten." He said through clenched teeth.

"I'm sorry. It was a heavy burden to put on you."

"Aw Donnie...it wasn't your fault."

The purple-banded turtle reached out his good hand in his direction, and Michelangelo took it firmly.

"Thank you for saving me." His voice was barely audible.

Mike trembled slightly as he rested his forehead against the mattress. "I missed you Donnie. Don't ask me to do something like that again, 'cause I don't know if I'd get through it a second time, okay?"


	59. Clues & Reunions

"...You know, it didn't occur to me until just now, but I had your house key Sarah. God only knows what those guys did with it." Leonardo said ruefully.

"That's right, _you_ had my spare." The woman shot a pointed look over at Timothy. "You said there wasn't any sign of forced entry at my house. That could explain it."

"Actually, there _was _one lying just inside the front door." The man remembered.

"In a Steeler's design?"

"Exactly. I left it on your kitchen table. You a big fan?" Tim asked with a grin.

"Well my dad is, so I sort of am by association. He's the one who made the extra copy. I don't believe they got in there with my own key."

"It certainly doesn't look like they spent any real time inside. My guess is that they either figured you weren't coming back, or they got spooked by something else." Timothy suggested.

"There's enough foot traffic in the neighborhood to do that, I'm just glad they didn't hurt anything. They _didn't_ hurt anything, did they? If they touched our TV, my parents might kill me where I stand."

Tim chuckled. "No, but I was thinking of stealing that monster for myself."

"I'm gonna have to check Marc's Avalanche before I let you go anywhere." Sarah pushed back. "How much longer is Greg going to be a captive?"

"The docs are working on it." Leonardo offered. "They might be able to whisk him away as of tomorrow. He really ought probably stay longer, but I doubt that'll happen. He wants to get home, I think we all do."

"I'll be sad to see you guys go, but the truth is that I _need_ you to get on the road so that I can start on the next one." Sarah said impishly.

"Your next one?" Leonardo said incredulously. "You're already wanting to start another story? Don't you think it'd be nice to take a break or something Sarah?" The turtle asked a little nervously.

"You'll all be getting a break from me in the time that it takes me to actually write it Leo. When I've got ideas flowing, I generally like to jump on them right away." She replied.

"Do I dare ask for a heads' up on this one?" He almost hated to ask.

"Well, I've followed a progression here Leo. I focused mainly on Donnie for a long time, until I got an itching to take on Raphael. I tried to bring Mikey to the forefront in this one, but it didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. I'm not finished with him, but my next idea with him as the lead won't come to fruition until _after_ the one I'm about to start. Now who's been left out completely so far?" She finished a little teasingly.

"Honest Sarah, I don't feel left out." The turtle said swiftly. "Having the lead is overrated, and often painful as far as you're concerned."

"It's not all about pain Leo. I should tell you that Mikell has offered refuge again, so her suspicions are following along the same line as yours'."

"Sounds like she just knows you too well by now." He grumbled to himself. "So what new challenges do you have in mind this time? Are you going to blow up half of New York? Invite an alien invasion? I just want to be prepared for anything."

"You're gonna try and stay ten steps ahead of me through this whole process, aren't you?" Sarah grinned. "Well forget it, because I'm not giving away any of the real plot, except to say that you'll be meeting the enemy head on, as of the very first chapter. You're going to need your katanas pretty badly this time around."

He slowly let out the breath he'd been holding. "Okay Sarah, seeing as I don't have much choice, I'll be ready for you. I think."

"Leo, all kidding aside...I know that I gave you a hard time of it when I first started writing. I want you to know that I'm not continuing that cycle. I really want your strength to be the driving force behind this fic, and I'm hoping that I can do you some justice. I feel like I owe you that.

Try to trust me. It's not going to be a walk in the park, it never is. But I have good intentions for you, _very _good intentions. Just hang in there with me in the meantime, and try to help support Raph. He's going to need all the encouragement he can get when Brandon gets to town."

"So he's coming." Leonardo echoed.

"I was going to have to bring him along sooner or later."

"I figured as much. You've only been dropping his name in every story since Sacrifice. He's not gonna hurt anybody, is he?" The blue-banded turtle asked, with a suddenly edgy quality to his tone.

"Brandon's not like that Leo - he's a good man, I promise. You guys actually have some things in common. After all, his involvement was part of what spurred Kat on toward taking Tai Kwon Do to begin with. They both got into it as young teenagers."

"It must have made for some interesting conversations around the dinner table when they were growing up, don't you think?" Leonardo smiled in spite of himself.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing, it's just, two ballroom dancers, co-existing with a couple of teenage wanna be martial artists? It's a funny thought." After a beat of hesitation, he continued. "Can I make one request though?"

"It doesn't hurt to ask."

"Leave Donnie's knee alone, okay? Revisiting it never gets any easier."

"I'm not far enough into my planning to know what will be happening with everyone yet, but I promise you that I won't touch it Leo. Now that doesn't mean nobody's gonna be hurt, but I'll guarantee you that much."

"That's not completely reassuring, but I'm glad for that at least."

* * *

(24 Hours Later)

"No Mom, we decided that it would be better to get one more night's sleep at Sarah's. We'll leave from here about an hour before the sun comes up." Jenna explained over the phone.

"Are they sure about pulling Greg out of the hospital so soon?" Victoria said with some concern.

"We've got to trust that the docs know what they're doing." Jenna replied. "Greg's seriously ready to get out. He just wants to go home, all of us do. Have you talked to Tim in the last couple of days?" She finished mischievously.

"He thanked me for getting that phone number for Katherine. I don't understand what the big deal is, _she's_ the one who talked him out of there."

"I don't know Mom, if I were you, I'd milk this thing for all that it's worth."

Victoria laughed on the other end. "Why don't you just come out and tell me how you really feel Jenna?"

"All I'm saying is, it wouldn't hurt you to take advantage of the situation. He does owe you for two times now."

Victoria laughed at her daughter a second time. "He doesn't owe me a single thing, not after what he's already done for the boys."

"It's just a suggestion Mom, I'm not actually being serious about you holding anything over him. It's just...if you keep waiting for him to say something on his own, it could take awhile."

"I prefer to let things progress naturally hon." Victoria said very casually.

"You deserve to be happy too." Jenna pointed out.

"I am happy Jen. I don't think there's anything wrong with exercising a little bit of patience."

* * *

Luke and Marcus returned to Sarah's house with Greg in tow a couple of hours later. The man was extremely pale, but ecstatic to finally get to see the turtles again.

"You wouldn't think that getting out of the hospital would have been harder than escaping that other place." Greg cracked from his perch in the recliner.

"If we weren't along for the ride anyway, your tail would still be sitting in that hospital." Luke said gruffly. "You really shouldn't be moving around too much, so don't try anything here."

"You don't have to convince me of that." Greg assured him. "I'm just glad to be out of there, and back with all of _you_."

"We're glad to see you too." Donatello told him at once. "It's been a long couple of days of waiting."

"A couple of days? Is that all it's been?" He said with a sigh. "What date is it anyway?"

"It's the 29th." Jenna volunteered, as she returned to the living room with a mug for him. "Are you ready to try this?"

He nodded with a slight grimace, and she made sure that he had a firm grip on it before trying to let go herself.

"We missed your birthday Raph." Greg remarked, as it suddenly dawned on him.

The red-masked turtle shrugged. "Somehow, that doesn't seem to matter very much on the scale of all things."

The small living room was more full than Sarah had ever seen it, but she couldn't have been happier to have everyone together for one last night. The stress and the fear of the last few days had finally evaporated out of existence when Greg arrived to join the rest of them.

Michelangelo caught her eye at one point, noticing that she was sitting to the side, and not really interacting with anyone else. He joined her in the kitchen, pulling out one of the other chairs. "Still feeling shy?" He asked curiously.

She chuckled and shook her head. "No Mike, I'm just observing. You guys are really lucky to have each other - but you knew that already."

"Yes." He replied with a certainty. "I do know that."

Across from them back in the living room, Raphael was engaging Greg again. "You're escaping the field huh? What are you gonna do with yourself now Heff?"

"I'll still be working for the FBI, just more on the Intelligence side of things. You know, assisting helpless field agents who can't find their own shadow in the sunlight. Digging has always been my real strength anyway - even if I did crash and burn on this run." Greg said regretfully. "I'm taking some time off before I start the new position...maybe give me a chance to do some things I've been putting off."

"Like what Heff?" Leonardo asked.

"I've gotten a little bit lax on a license, and now I'm going to have to go through the whole nine yards to get re-certified." He replied.

"License for what?" Raphael spoke up.

The man cracked another smile. "Something a little more serious than my Liberty. But I haven't done any flying in years, so--"

"You have your pilot's license?" The red-banded turtle interrupted. "When was that gonna come up?"

"I told you there was still a lot that you don't know about me." Greg answered. "Some things that I gave up on years ago...that I'm suddenly feeling the urge to pick up again."

"Have you got some wife and kids that you're holding out on us somewhere too?" Raphael said sarcastically.

"Now you've got me." Greg smiled tiredly. "I keep them stashed in the Appalachians. I fly down every other weekend to feed them and the sheep."

Katherine only caught the tail end of the conversation as she was coming down the hall, and immediately shot Luke a look on the couch. "Are you _sure_ he was ready to get out of that hospital?"


	60. Grace & Goodbyes

The house was quiet, an almost unsettling silence. Greg was used to the noise, to the streets of New York City that never completely emptied out, even at night. There was something reassuring to him about the activity that never came to a complete halt. It was here in the state of tranquil quiet that he was having a hard time falling truly asleep.

He wasn't alone, a couple of the others had crashed right there in the living room with him. He had an easier time breathing in an elevated position, so he'd never even budged from the recliner himself. Everyone had made an attempt to turn in at a reasonable hour since they would be leaving early in the morning. Greg had dozed intermittently, sleeping for about twenty minutes at a time.

When he woke up yet again and glanced over to see the wall-mounted clock, he noticed that Sarah was missing from her chair. _Guess I'm not the only one not sleeping_, he thought curiously.

Very quietly he released the chair, and got to his feet with a little difficultly. He made his way stiffly into the kitchen, and went for the fridge to get another bottle of water. As he leaned a little precariously against the table, he noticed that the bar usually in place to keep the sliding door locked was raised instead. _That's weird. Why would they leave the door unlocked with the guys here?_

Greg staggered toward the door, and was about to lock it himself, when he noticed the young woman out on the covered patio. He slid the door open and glanced out at her, as she seemed to be lost in her own little world. The woman he only really knew as the author didn't notice him as he came outside, and under closer inspection he realized that she was wearing ear-phones.

He stood back for a few moments, as she was singing softly along with something.

_"Lord, by faith in You I've come_

_No matter what I've done_

_Still you're calling out to me_

_If only I'll believe_

_And come humbly to Your throne_

_I tried so many times and fell_

_I just couldn't save myself_

_Now I simply look to You_

_Standing firmly on the truth_

_That's pointing to Your throne_

_***_

_Now I can see_

_That You were always drawing me_

_Your grace supplies _

_Everything I need_

_It's not my works_

_That can make me right with You_

_Before Your throne_

_Now I see the truth..."_

It was close to a minute and a half before she turned slightly in his direction, and almost jumped a mile.

"What is it with you guys?" She laughed, as she pulled the ear-phones off. "Do all of you get your kicks startling people?"

"I'm sorry - I noticed the door was unlocked, and you were outside, and..." He trailed off, and smiled sheepishly. "Then I was just listening."

She was obviously a little embarrassed about it, illustrated further by the way she tugged on the fleece blanket she was partially wrapped in.

"I'm really sorry." He repeated. "I didn't mean to intrude."

"No, it's okay." She said quickly. "You didn't hurt anything. What are you doing up though? If Doc catches you..."

"I know, I'll be in for it. What are _you_ doing up?"

"With the upheaval everything has been in, I haven't gotten the time alone that I usually do. I was just praying."

"That's funny, it sounded like you were _singing_."

Sarah gave him a small smile. "For me, that's the easiest way for some prayers to come out."

"Do you think He hears you?" The man asked, and she stared back at him for a second, trying to decipher if it was a serious question.

Then she motioned to the second plastic chair across from her. "Sit down Greg." She encouraged him.

"I'm not trying to offend you." He said at once. "But you're really into this, aren't you?"

She nodded. "I'm _pretty_ into it Greg. But as for your other question...yes, I know that God hears me."

"How do you know?"

"When I first started, it was just faith. I believed that God heard me, and I talked to Him like He did."

"And now?"

"You have to understand where I came from, and how things changed. When I was growing up, my Mom was a very depressed person. She was unhappy with living in general, and with most of the irritating things that children are known to do. She died suddenly from a stroke, when I was nine. She was a writer too...I think it must be hereditary. But the only writings that she left behind for us were stacks of journals that recounted the wrong things that we did, and how much she didn't want to live anymore.

I developed this mentality that I wasn't good enough for her, or anyone else. Thus the only way to earn love was to work harder, to be a better person. But no matter what I did, it never felt like enough. I always came up short. By the time that I was a young teenager, I was the one writing suicidal journal entries. I was raised in the church, believed in God...I knew a lot about Him. But it didn't make any difference, because it was only knowledge in my head."

"Then what changed it?" He asked.

"I got into my heart." She replied with a smile. "I think we miss it a lot of times, but God reaches out to us Greg. I felt him tugging me one night, when I was alone in my room. I didn't hear a voice, or see anything spectacular. But I walked away with an invitation to start seeking after Him, instead of just showing up for church every week.

I started spending regular time doing just that - praying and reading the Bible every day. I stuck with it, and over the course of weeks...I suddenly noticed something was different. I wasn't depressed anymore. That's not to say that all of my issues went away instantly, or that my life became perfect. But the strong desire to give up on everyone and everything left me. It was like going from feeling like I had nothing to live for, to experiencing a peace that I'd never known, despite how much time I'd spent in a church building.

I can't even really explain how incredible it felt to go from one to the other. God did something for me that I couldn't do for myself. When I look at the changes in my temperament, in the level of confidence...yeah Greg, I know it's real."

"You said you never _felt_ good enough." He said slowly. "But what if you really aren't? What's God's approach to that person?"

"The truth is that all of us are in the same spot. Nobody is good enough on their own. If God was sitting around waiting for that, He'd be waiting forever."

"But it's not the same for everyone." He countered. "Not everyone can come that way, or experience what you have."

"No, not everyone does." She allowed. "But the point is, everyone _can_."

"How?" Was his one word response.

"Because the grace and mercy of God are available for everyone."

"What if you don't deserve it - can't deserve it?"

"Greg, no one deserves it."

Now he was truly at a loss. "Then how does anyone get it?"

"It sounds like you don't understand what they really mean Greg. Grace is...it's God giving us something that we couldn't earn for ourselves. And mercy is the flip side. It means God withholds punishment that we _do_ deserve. Two concepts, but the theme is the same. If you were capable of deserving them, you wouldn't need them to begin with. Does that make sense to you?"

He held up his hands a little uncertainly.

"All it means is, you can't earn God's forgiveness. It doesn't work that way. You could spend ten lifetimes trying, and it still wouldn't be enough."

"Then how do you get it?"

"Ask. The price has already been paid for, you don't have to twist God's arm. He wants you to come. But you can't rely on your own emotions or what you're feeling inside, to tell you how _God_ feels about you. That's something that I still struggle with in my own mind sometimes. God doesn't change. He doesn't love you one second, and hate you the next. As hard as it is to do, you honestly might have to put everything you're feeling aside, simply accept that God will forgive you, and that He wants you."

* * *

A few hours later, the packing of various vehicles started before the sun was starting to rise. Mike had finished something outside, and was now hanging around on the patio, waiting for Sarah to get done inside, so that he could pull her aside for one more tiny thing. As she was putting up the last of the dishes, the orange-masked turtle came back inside the house.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" He asked.

"Speak, or forever hold your peace." She answered with a wry smile.

"No, I mean somewhere else."

Back by one of the bedrooms, she closed the door most of the way. "Okay, now what?" She asked.

"Seeing as how you'll be going back where you came from soon, I was wondering if you could maybe arrange something for me." The turtle replied.

His devious smile completely gave away where he was going.

"No, no Mike, I can't. I have my marching orders, this is supposed to be the last chapter!"

"That's just it Sarah. You're closing up the trilogy! If it doesn't happen now, it's not gonna happen at all."

"Mike, listen...I think everyone's been through plenty already. There has to be some point where you say that enough is enough."

"You changed a chapter for _Raphael_."

"He made me do that! I didn't have a choice in the matter."

"Yeah, and I'm asking. I'd think that would give me more favor, huh? C'mon. It's my story, and I don't get to have _any_ fun with it?"

Sarah sighed, tugging hard on her own locks like she was going to pull her hair out. "You're going to get me into so much trouble with him!"

"Blame it on me Sarah."

"Okay...okay, fine. I'll see what I can do for you Mikey." She finally agreed.

"Great, atta girl." He said with a wink.

As she walked him back to the kitchen, it was clear that everyone else was ready to go. He hesitated just outside the glass sliding door, then reached back to give the young woman a firm embrace. She was a little surprised, but then hugged the turtle back. On a complete impulse, she kissed him on the cheek. He colored however slightly, and shook his head at her.

"You're gonna be nice to me in the future, aren't you?" He asked.

"You'll just have to wait and see what happens, you're pretty aware of how my stories work out by now. Go on home, so I can get back to work." She finished with a twinkle.

* * *

*** One more chapter to go...'cause somebody knows how to work the Author.**


	61. Pay Back

*** Looking for the original prank that inspired such retaliation? Take a hop, skip, and a jump over to "Manhunt", and check out the chapter "Sweet Revenge".**

* * *

(At Home, Three Weeks Later)

Greg shifted nervously from one foot to the other, as he and Michelangelo were waiting for Raphael to come back downstairs.

"I still don't understand why I have to be the one to do this." The man muttered.

"Would you rather I be focusing all of my plotting power on _you _Heff?" The orange-masked turtle asked with a mischievous smile.

The human swallowed hard, and shook his head.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Mike went on. "You've gotta remember to be quick though, 'cause I can't guarantee how long I can hold him."

"You_ know _he's going to beat you until the end of time. I don't see how retaliation can be worth it at this point."

"Oh, it's worth it, even if Donnie doesn't think so right now. Something tells me that he'll change his tune when the opportunity falls directly into his lap."

"Your first day back Mikey, and you're pulling this. You really are a piece of work."

"You didn't see what he did to Donnie last year. Believe me - it's warranted."

"Since when do you use that word Mike?"

"I don't have to dumb everything down all the time, just to keep my image up." The turtle replied simply.

"No, I didn't mean--"

"I know you didn't. Forget it, he's coming. Play it cool Heff."

* * *

Greg fought to keep his expression simply curious as he watched the two turtles work out for a few minutes together, and slowly relax into a more demonstrative cycle for the benefit of the human's questions. The brothers had been serious at first, but were now reverting to a more playful version of sparring that had included one or both of them taking several plants on the mat.

"I'm still not seeing it." Greg forced his tone to remain completely even. "What's the _most_ effective pin you can use when you're dealing with someone who's bigger than you are?"

Raphael grinned at the man unwittingly. "Mike's the pip-squeak, so he's the best one to demonstrate it. We can take it slow, let you see one of the maneuvers step by step."

The orange-masked turtle successfully kept a straight face as he lined back up with his brother, and tensed to go in for the kill.

"Okay Heff, now I'm just gonna let him--" Raphael was cut off mid-sentence, as Michelangelo pounced before he could get another word off. "Way to take it slow _bonehead_." The red-banded turtle complained, as his younger brother used his full weight in addition to his knees to perform a flattening pin on him. "Can we be serious now?" Raphael grunted, as he tried to twist his neck so that he could catch a glimpse of Michelangelo perched on his shell.

"Not just yet Raphy." His brother proclaimed with an uncomfortably devious smile.

The red-banded turtle's amber eyes narrowed in the fraction of an instant. "NO Mike, get off of me!"

A strong look passed from his brother to Greg, and the human took a step in their direction. Raphael had further reason to be concerned when his friend grabbed for his _wrists_. In the end, it took Mike levering even firmer weight against him to help hold his arms at all steady enough for Greg to get Donatello's restraints onto him.

"This isn't funny Mike! I'm gonna HURT you!" Raphael snarled angrily.

Michelangelo didn't budge an inch until he was certain that his brothers' arms were contained, and then motioned for Greg to help get him to the nearby chair. Raphael had opportunity to lash out at the man with his legs, but couldn't bring himself to do something that could actually hurt the still healing human. He glared at the two of them in sullen resentment as they got him back down, and worked together to restrain his legs to the chair.

"What the shell is _wrong_ with you guys?" Frustration made the turtle very sharp.

"It's time Raph." Mike said evenly. "Actually, it's long past due."

As the turtle stepped away from him to type something into the text field on his phone, Raphael turned his scathing look fully onto Greg.

"Past time for what, your crazy pills? Why'd you help him set me up Heff?"

The man shook his head a little regretfully. "Sorry Raph, I'm just a helpless pawn on this one. It was going to happen, with or without my help."

"Do you realize I could have kicked your teeth in a minute ago? You're not gonna be laid up forever Heff, now would be a good time to remember that!"

"It's going forward Raph - you're better off not fighting it." Greg replied.

"Fighting what? You guys ain't got a right to do anything to me!"

"Maybe we don't exactly, but there's someone else who does." Michelangelo said with the first hint of a grin. "I'm gonna go grab my cart Heff, make sure he doesn't go anywhere."

"Greg, just lemme out of these things, and I'll pretend like this never happened." Raphael said, the moment his orange-masked brother left the room.

"Raph, you'll only be putting it off longer than it already has been."

"I don't get what this is about!"

"Don't you? I'm told you seriously have it coming for a stunt you pulled on one of your other brothers."

"The thing with Donnie?" Raphael was only now a little breathless. "That was over a year ago! And he had it coming too."

"Sources say that you went a little overboard." Greg tried not to smile as he told the turtle.

There was a light knock at the door, and the purple-banded turtle looked inside a second later. "Hey, what's up? Mike texted me to..." Donatello immediately trailed off when he caught sight of Greg standing over a bound Raphael. "What's going _on_?"

"Donnie! They're ganging up on me, help a brother out!" The red-banded turtle decided to try.

Donatello threw a curious glance at Greg, who merely shook his head at him.

"Mike will be here in a minute Don. Just wait for him, and he'll explain everything."

The purple-banded turtle crossed his arms across his chest, as he attempted to hold back a smile of his own. "We're a little late for his birthday, aren't we? And where's Leo?"

"This more closely concerns you Donnie." Mike announced from the door. "I've decided to help you take some action."

"Again with the retaliation Mikey? I told you I was over this." Donatello protested.

"That's right Donnie, you don't have to listen to him!" Raphael piped up hopefully.

"Are you sure you're over it Donnie?" Mike wheedled him slightly. "You do remember what he did, don't you?"

"Of course I do, but that was months ago. Why are you dragging it back up now?"

"Do you remember how long it took to get all that caramel off of your shell?" Michelangelo said pointedly. "I do. I had to help you."

"That's all in the past! Bygones are bygones, huh Donnie?" The red-banded turtle called again.

"Three hours." Donatello said stoically. "It took three _hours _to get that hardened junk off of me."

The purple-banded turtle threw a slightly menacing look over his shoulder at Raphael, and gave him the immediately sinking feeling that he'd just lost the battle completely.

Mike gave him a huge grin in turn. "Step into my office Donnie, see if you like what I have to offer."

Donatello slowly surveyed what he'd amassed, chuckling more than once as he hefted the weight of one of the buckets. "You know I won't be able to do this alone." The turtle pointed out, referring to the cast on his left wrist.

"That's what I'm here for Donnie." Mike said with another cheshire smile. "Shell, I have a feeling that Heff will warm up to it too."

"This isn't fair!" Raphael stated. "You and Leo already retaliated - the same time that it went down with _him_!"

"That was their doing Raph, not mine." Donatello said non-chalently. "I'll do you the grand favor of trying to avoid your shell. As far as anything else is concerned, well...you're just gonna have to take it like a man." He finished with the ongoing taunt that Raphael and Michelangelo had traded back and forth for years.

Raphael buried his head as they started in with Donnie's first choice, not that it did the turtle any good whatsoever. They took their time covering him slowly in both caramel and chocolate, only pausing for a brief moment after what was an over ten-minute assault.

"Today's inspiration was brought to you by the Killer Brownie," Mike announced officially. "Of course, there's something else that goes along perfectly with them."

Raphael flinched as the first cold sensation hit the back of his neck, and couldn't hold in a groan. He should have known that was coming. The turtle couldn't see a thing at the moment, but he could hear Greg's voice close enough to tell where the ice cream being slathered onto his shoulders was coming from.

"Helpless pawn, huh?" He growled at the human.

"If you can't beat them..."

"Oh, I can _beat _'em Heff." The red-banded turtle said flatly.

It was necessary to finish off the ice cream with more chocolate, and then a thick layer of whipped cream on top of that.

"Aren't you done YET?" Raphael demanded, shivering as melted ice cream traveled down his shell.

"Nearly bro - I just want to make sure that Sarah gets a visual of this." Michelangelo chuckled, while Donnie was adjusting his camera lens.

"One of these days, she's gonna get it, and she won't even know it's coming." Raphael said darkly under his breath.

* * *

Leonardo's first clue that anything unusual was going on didn't come until he walked out of his bedroom upstairs, around the time that Raphael was making for the bathroom. Laughter leaped up before the blue-masked turtle could stop it from coming out. "He finally got you back, didn't he?"

"Thanks to Mike. And you'd better stop laughing, before you have to eat my fist!" The turtle seethed in return.

Leonardo sincerely did his best to keep a straight face, biting his lip as he took another step toward him. "Do you need any help Raph?"

"Help? I needed help half an hour ago! What were you doing up here that was so important, that you couldn't notice what was going on downstairs? All three of them ganged up on me at once!"

Leonardo gave him a small shrug, and held up the piece of waterstone that he'd still been gripping in his right hand.

"Polishing again? Fearless, you've hardly put your katana down since we got home. What's with you? Are you that freaked out about what's coming next? Raphael asked him.

The blue-banded turtle shook his head. "No Raph, I'm just trying to be prepared. She _did_ warn me after all. Actually, in a weird way...I'm sort of looking forward to it."

Raphael snorted openly. "I'm gonna remind you that you said that, about half-way into it Leo. I'd like to find out if you still feel the same way."


End file.
